Wake
by LyraintheSky
Summary: 1wake /wāk/ vb : emerge or cause to emerge from a state of sleep 2wake n : the track left by a ship in the water; also : a track left behind. Or, what happens after Sonic '06 if it didn't really happen? Particularly to a certain villain who should no longer exist...
1. What Hasn't Happened

**Decided I should post the first chunk of this and see what folks thought. It was born mostly out of annoyance at 'it didn't happen' style endings, then snowballed. Quick disclaimer: I wrote the earlier parts of this a long time ago, so some of the writing might be subpar. I've edited as best I could without destroying the plot's flow. That aside, please R &R so I can see if anyone is interested enough for me to keep posting this. ^-^  
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* * *

A pair of lime green eyes blinked open. Their owner stared at the cloudy sky above him, feeling disoriented and more than a little confused.

Sitting up, he glanced at his surroundings. He was in an alley, laying in a box of what appeared to be packing peanuts. He raised an arm and grimaced when the staticky foam clung to his fur. His first order of business was clear.

Five minutes later, the dark furred creature was standing (mostly) foam free in the middle of the alley, brushing some dust off his arms. He looked around, thinking back and trying to remember why he would be-

He froze.

He couldn't remember what he been doing last.

More than that, he couldn't remember anything he had seen or done before this moment. He couldn't even remember his own name.

Amnesia. That's what it was called. He had amnesia. How that happened, he didn't know, and there weren't any passersby to ask. And if waking up in an alley was any indicator, he probably couldn't ask his potentially nonexistent friends.

Friends. He cringed as the word set off a stream of half-formed images – several people talking, running, fighting each other and him. His mind recoiled from what he presumed to be memories (and a probable headache). The figures were blurred and unrecognizable, but the pain was clear and sharp. He was afraid to wonder what caused that particular association.

Shaking his head to clear it, he debated what to do now. He clearly didn't want to run into any of those people... But they would probably recognize him on sight. He wouldn't have that advantage. Staying here wouldn't do anything though. The only real option was to go out and hope he wouldn't be seen.

Frustrated, he turned and blasted the box to bits. He didn't have time to be surprised at producing the blast before being pelted with bits of foam. He took a moment to simply stand and loathe the existence of packing peanuts. At least now he could defend himself... assuming he could figure out how he'd done that.

After testing this attack (and shaking off the packing peanuts again), the dark one decide to get going. Someone was going to check out the noise soon, and he didn't want to know what would happen when they saw the former pavement.

He looked out at the street, then began walking with a reasonably casual air.

As he walked, he noticed that some places triggered a flashback. Several buildings made him go tense for a moment before, with an increasingly shaky sigh, he relaxed enough to keep moving.

He kept this up for what seemed like forever. Finally, he paused under an awning near some store. He folded his arms and stared, seemingly lost in thought, at a nearby park. The sky was turning red and gold, but a few families remained. He watched a mother raccoon try to coax her child home, eventually giving up and scooping the reluctant cub into her arms. The dark one looked away as the mother consoled the whining cub.

"Shadow?"

He turned slightly toward the speaker, surprised to realize he was being spoken to. The silvery white hedgehog gave him a strange feeling, making him wary, but it wasn't altogether bad. A part of it was just… familiar. He decided to wait and see what would happen. And what was that thing he said? "Shadow? What does that mean?"

The hedgehog looked blank, then resigned. "Oh, right. Sonic said you get amnesia sometimes. Uh… you aren't going to attack me, are you?"

"Why would I do that?" The dark one tilted his head in a confused gesture.

"Apparently it's a thing you do sometimes… something about revenge on the world. If you're not going to attack, I guess it doesn't really matter." He frowned. The dark one found himself feeling envious. Unlike him, most of the creatures he'd seen had mouths to express emotions. Actually, all of them did. Maybe he was just strange.

The other's next comment snapped him out of his thoughts. "Wait a- you're not Shadow! He said he was going to be at the lab today. Who are you?"

The dark one turned to face him, planning to say something like "Why don't you tell me?!" But as soon as he turned, the other tensed and dropped into a fighting stance. "Mephiles," he hissed. "I thought you were dead."

Now alarmed, he prepared for a blast attack, only to find his hands immobilized. "No way," the other said. "I'm not about to take a blast to the face _again_. Now why are you here? How are you even alive?"

He quickly realized the invisible restraints weren't going to give, and gave up trying to free himself in favor of glaring at his attacker. "How should I know? You seem to know me, so why don't you tell me!"

The other's face went blank. "You… don't know who I am?"

His eyes widened as he realized what he'd said. Way to give your amnesia away to an obvious enemy. Bravo. He tried yanking his hands free again, with no effect. In his panic, he missed the other's expression turning thoughtful.

"Hey." The dark being froze and looked at him. "Does the name Mephiles mean anything to you?"

He flinched, curling in on himself with a confused expression. The hedgehog nodded like he'd confirmed something. "It's your name. I guess it makes sense that you'd forget _everything_ …" His eyes narrowed. "Unless you're tricking me again."

Silver was struck by the realization that Mephiles actually appeared to be bothered by that comment. If this was a trick, he was a better actor than Silver thought. But he'd been tricked before... embarrassingly easily. He needed another perspective.

A few taps on his communicator and he heard a familiar greeting. "Hey, Sonic," he said. "I need help with…" He paused, noticing how Mephiles had flinched and flattened his quills, his expression a mix of fear and anger warring with confusion. The mixed signals reminded him of other experiences with flashbacks, when what you knew and what you 'knew' didn't seem to line up. "Silver? You still there?" He snapped back to the present at Sonic's worried query.

"Yeah, sorry. Could you come here? I need your thoughts, but you have to see this yourself."

A moment's pause. "What's going on? You okay?"

Another glance showed that Mephiles was listening closely. Not sure how much he should hear, Silver worded his reply carefully. "It's not an emergency… yet… but I want to be safe. I… think it's related to the… everything that didn't happen. And you should come alone."

"If you say so. Where are you?"

Silver rattled off the coordinates and ended the call. He knew it would be a couple minutes before Sonic got there. For one thing, GPS ran a lot slower than the Blue Blur; for another, since this wasn't an emergency, he would probably run to the outer edge of whatever zone he was in before heading back, aka 'take the scenic route.'

He tucked his communicator away in his quills turned back to the apparent amnesiac. "If I let you go, will you try to run or attack me?" He shook his head warily. "Good. I'll hold you to that." Silver dropped the telekinetic restraints and heaved a mental sigh of relief. Keeping something that focused for so long got ridiculously tiring. He watched as Mephiles backed up a few steps to shelter in the shadow of a dumpster. To Silver's surprise, he actually didn't try to attack or make a run for it. He took a moment to really look at his (former?) enemy.

The dark one's expression was now defiant, most of his fear hidden. But his spines lay back, practically radiating fear and uncertainty. After meeting other hedgehogs, Silver had observed that it was nearly impossible to fake the emotional responses of one's quills. You could suppress them some, but not really change the signal. One of his first priorities for living here was to learn 'quill-speak,' and he was better at it than even Amy. If Mephiles had even a little hedgehog instinct with that form, he couldn't fake the emotion. And he'd never shown any real signals before. Meaning – wait, huh?

"Uh… Mephiles?"

He looked up, vaguely curious. "Yes?"

"Why do you have packing peanuts in your quills?"

Mephiles' face went completely blank. He slowly stood, turning to face the dumpster, before suddenly kicking it hard enough to flip it on its side. Silver jumped, surprised at the sudden display of violence. "Damn demonic little foam-"

When Sonic arrived, he was treated to the sight of a dark-furred hedgehog standing by an overturned dumpster and ranting about the 'foam scourge of the earth' while Silver watched bemusedly. He took a moment to wonder if he was hallucinating, then shook his head to clear it and strode up to Silver. "You know, you could have told me Shadow's gone off the deep end over the com."

Silver turned to him, expression becoming more serious. "Guess again. It's not Shadow; he's at the lab, remember?"

Now that he mentioned it, that did sound vaguely familiar. But if this wasn't Shadow… His eyes widened as he observed some key features. Or lack thereof, in this case. "Mephiles is back? And he went nuts?"

Silver gave a long-suffering sigh. "No to the second. At least, I don't think he did."

"Then how do you explain-?" He gestured at the absurd scene in front of them.

"I have no idea. But he didn't start this… whatever it is until I asked why he had packing peanuts in his quills."

"I see." The pair watched in silence as Mephiles continued his rant.

"-one box of the things!" he said, spinning to face them. "What did I even do in my last life to-" He froze, eyes locked on Sonic. His quills puffed out and he dropped into a defensive stance. "What do you want?" he hissed.

Sonic raised an eye ridge, about to make a snarky reply, but paused. "Silver, is my quill-speak getting rusty, or…"

"Not unless mine is too. Meph, he doesn't want anything. I just need to talk to him."

"And why should I believe that?" he demanded. Now that he was looking, Sonic could see the 'aggression' in Mephile's quills wasn't anger or a show of superiority, but an instinctual attempt to seem bigger when confronted. In other words, he was scared.

When Silver failed to reply, Mephiles scowled. (Well, his eyes narrowed at least.) "I don't actually care what you want with me. I don't know why you're mad at me. Just leave me alone!" Sonic darted forward and caught his wrists before he could more than start to aim a Chaos Blast. "Silver, little help?" he called as the dark one struggled.

Silver pulled himself together enough to remake the restraints and allow Sonic to release his hold. Silver looked at Mephiles with a disappointed expression. "I thought you said you wouldn't attack." He looked down, kicking sadly at a pebble. "Guess you didn't change after all."

Since Silver wasn't looking, Sonic was the only one to see Mephiles flinch and flatten his ears briefly. Since when did he react to anyone's opinion about him? Actually, his behavior overall was really strange. It suddenly seemed obvious why Silver wanted a second opinion. He wouldn't trust his own judgement after being tricked before.

But even with his penchant for trickery, this sort of act would be outside Mephiles' limits. He wouldn't humiliate himself that way. So if this was for real, and Mephiles had honestly agreed not to attack, why had he broken that promise? Why had he even made the promise?

Sonic shook his head. As far as he was concerned, that was too much thinking and not enough action. So he just went with the first thought that came into his head. "Hey, Mephiles." Two pairs of eyes turned to him. "What's the difference between me and him?"

The dark one looked at him like he was mentally deficient. "Everything?"

Sonic rolled his eyes. "Not what I meant. It sounds like Silver didn't have issues with you taking your chill pill, but I walk in and it's like I took your last chili dog. What's with that?"

Mephiles took a moment to process the metaphor before answering. "You remind me of… something." Sharing his amnesia blatantly seemed like a bad idea. Silver gave him a funny look (oh right, he'd figured it out already) but didn't comment. Sonic beat him to it.

"That's all? Must be one heck of a memory."

Blink. Blink. "Uh… yeah." He didn't know what he could say without compromising himself further. Then he noticed Sonic was looking sort of past him instead of making eye contact. Strange.

"You know," Silver said suddenly, "If you can't remember why we'd attack you, there's no reason for us to fight."

"Huh?"

"He's right," Sonic said with a growing grin. "After all, we were only enemies because you were doing bad things. If you keep the world-destroying to a minimum, we'll do just fine."

The what? Mephiles was beginning to seriously question just what sort of person he'd been before losing his memory. He didn't voice his thoughts, instead saying, "Fine. Can I have my arms back now?"

Silver and Sonic exchanged a look. Sonic shrugged, so Silver dropped the restraints. "I'm not giving a third chance," he warned. Mephiles rubbed his wrists and didn't reply.

"So!" Sonic clapped his hands once. "Now that's settled, I say we introduce ourselves. Again." He rolled his eyes as Mephiles attempted to look confused. "Look pal, I'd be more shocked if you hadn't forgotten everything. I'll let someone who knows what they're talking about explain, but it's definitely normal."

"Oh, really." Mephiles crossed his arms and gave Sonic a doubtful look.

"Yes, really." Sonic imitated the pose, but ruined the effect with another grin. "Anyway, I'm Sonic, he's Silver. Let's see if we can't start off on the right foot this time."

There was silence for a moment as the three ran out of things to say. Silver broke the silence when it began to feel too awkward. "What now?"

Sonic shrugged. "We could go back to the lab. Not like we can leave our new friend alone, and I'm betting he doesn't have anywhere to stay." He moved as if to pat Mephiles on the shoulder, then stopped almost before he'd started. Mephiles still noticed, but decided not to comment.

It occurred to him that Sonic wanted some kind of reply. He thought for a moment. "Not unless you count a blown up box of packing peanuts."

Sonic snickered, and Silver looked distinctly amused. "Is that why my comment set you off earlier?"

Mephiles shuddered. "Those things are pure evil."

"Whatever you say." Sonic shrugged. "Now are we going or are we going?"

"We're going, already! Learn a little patience."

"What's that? Can't hear you over my sonic boom!"

Mephiles had just enough time to wonder why Silver had clapped his hands over his ears before the aforementioned hit. He could barely hear his own surprised (and slightly pained) yelp over the ringing in his ears. Silver was saying something, but it sounded like his voice was coming through several layers of cotton. "What?" he asked. Based on Silver's flinch, he must have been louder than he'd realized.

Silver leaned in to yell in his ear. "ARE YOU OKAY?"

"I will be," he said, trying to keep his volume more reasonable. The ringing was beginning to die down.

"Good," Silver said with a relieved sigh. "Sonic could afford to think about others before pulling these stunts." He shook his head rapidly before refocusing. "Are you ready to follow? He'll call us slow anyway, but he might as well be wrong."

"I'm fine. Let's just go."

"Okay, follow me!"

As he followed the telekinetic, Mephiles realized that he was already getting used to these two. He decided that was best kept to himself until he figured out how he felt about it.


	2. What Is Now

**Given the interest I've seen in this, I'll aim for weekly updates about this long. If I can find the time, I'll try to post twice a week, but don't count on it. (If you'd rather have shorter chapters more often, message me or leave a review and I'll see what I can do.)**

 **Sorry for the slow-moving plot. But hey, it means they get to just chill for a bit before the storm, so that's something. :)**

* * *

The lab was only a couple blocks away, so the walk took maybe ten minutes at most. Of course, Sonic spent those ten minutes waiting, and tapped his foot pointedly as they approached. "Come on, already! Can't you hurry up?"

"How about no?" Silver snapped. "Just because you run all the time doesn't mean we can, or even want to!" (Sonic decided not to point out that Silver did want to, and had said as much several times.) "And with all that time, did you bother checking for triggers?"

Sonic gave him a blank look before facepalming. "Damn it, Sh- you know who is here. I'll be right back."

As he zipped inside, he heard Silver say, "As you can see, Sonic's brain isn't as fast as his feet."

"I heard that!" he called over his shoulder.

"Heard what?" Sonic turned to see that he'd gained the whole room's attention. "Is someone else there?" Tails asked, setting down the gizmo he'd been holding.

"Well, yeah," Sonic said, trying for a relaxed stance as he counted heads. Shadow was just sort of standing there, and Knuckles was eating a sandwich. "Hey, Shads, could you-"

"I've told you not to call me that," Shadow growled.

"Yeah, yeah, sorry about that," he said quickly, glancing back automatically. What if Shadow's voice…? No, that was paranoid. "But could you, just, step outside for a sec?"

"Why?" Shadow looked at him as though he'd suggested inviting their worst enemy to a celebration of his defeat. (Which, come to think of it, was partially true.)

"Oh, nothing big," he said, casually leaning back on the door frame – and almost falling over when he missed.

"Uh…Sonic, are you okay?" Tails asked, frowning as he righted himself.

"Me? I'm fine, obviously."

Knuckles fixed him with a doubtful look as he headed for the kitchen. "Sure, that's totally believa- _what is_ he _doing here?!_ " The echidna was pointing past Sonic. Toward the door. Er.

"Knux, calm down," he said quickly. "I'll explain, we're trying to not-"

" _Mephiles?_ How is he even alive?"

Sonic grimaced, realizing that Shadow had come over without him noticing. And if Shadow could see Mephiles…

Sonic spun to face the door. Silver was saying something, then stopped and shrugged helplessly at Sonic. Mephiles was frozen, staring at Shadow.

"Great, we were hoping to _prevent_ another flashback," Sonic said as he stepped outside. "Silv, what's he-" He stopped talking when he heard Mephiles' rambling.

"-dark here someone let me out what did I do it wasn't me why am I here not my fault what happened to-"

"He started when he saw Shadow," Silver said. "And I can't snap him out of it."

Sonic grimaced. "Well that's just great." He turned to the trio of confused faces behind him. "Shadow, get somewhere out of sight. I'm not dealing with this again." Shadow nodded, but glared at him to make his wish for further explanation clear before leaving. Sonic breathed a sigh of relief, then turned back to Mephiles. He gripped the dark being's shoulders and shook him. "Mephiles. That's a memory. You aren't there, you're here. Listen to me. _That isn't happening_."

Mephiles' voice got quieter as Sonic spoke. He shook his head as though waking up and blinked almost sleepily at Sonic. "…Did something happen?"

"Whew," Sonic said, releasing him. "I mean, nothing important." He gave a surprisingly convincing smile.

Mephiles looked at him doubtfully, but shrugged and dropped it. "Why are we here? You never told me." He looked at the unnamed pair warily.

Knuckles folded his arms and glared at the two hedgehogs. "That's a good question. Why _is_ he here?"

"Knuckles, please just-"

"No," he snapped, cutting Silver off, "I will _not_ calm down. Not until I get a good explanation for this. Or is there one?"

"Come on, Knux, do you really think I'd bring our enemy here without _some_ reason?"

"I never know with you. And no offense, Silver, but he's tricked you before."

"Well it's true. Why do you think I called Sonic?"

"If you were going to call this moron-"

"Hey, wait just a-!"

"-you could have called-"

"Hey." Everyone turned to Tails, who was watching Mephiles. "Do you know who I am?"

All eyes turned to Mephiles, who looked like he might turn and bolt. After a tense moment, his shoulders slumped in defeat. "How do all of you know?" he asked, voice soft and almost childlike.

Tails stepped to one side, gesturing toward the door. "If we're going to talk, how about we do it sitting down?"

"You can't be serious!" Knuckles said. "You're just letting this go?"

"Knuckles," Tails said, voice calm and even, "his life never happened."

"Exactly! So how is he-" Sudden pause. "Oh." He looked at Mephiles again. " _Oh._ "

The dark one tensed. "What do all of you expect to learn by staring at me?" he said, most definitely _not_ whining.

"Uh… sorry." Knuckles averted his gaze and quickly went back inside. The others followed.

A minute later, they were settled in Tails' living room. Silver and Mephiles sat on one couch, Sonic and Knuckles on the other, and Tails took one of the arm chairs. ("Shadow's going to kick you out. That's his favorite spot." "Shut up, it's my house and I can do what I want.")

One quick explanation later, Knuckles was a lot less hostile. Mephiles, on the other hand, had pulled his knees up to his chest and only offered monosyllabic responses to direct questions.

"Will he be okay?" Silver asked.

Tails looked uncertain. "I think so. You did this a few times when you came… returned… joined us in our time."

"I did?"

The fox shrugged. "I think it's the memory overload. The rest of us had fewer flashbacks, since most things we saw were familiar before… the thing, but everything caused them for you. But you never commented on it, so nobody else did."

"What now?" Knuckles asked. "We've got an amnesiac hopefully former enemy who looks like Shadow. What do we do about it?"

"Well," Tails said, "we'll have to tell the others at some point. We don't need another showdown scene." Silver looked sheepish. Sonic gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "And he'll need to stay somewhere, unless he already has some idea."

Sonic shook his head. "We asked, and he said unless we counted a box of packing peanuts-"

Mephiles sat bolt upright and glared at Sonic. "Those things are the work of the devil!"

Tails and Knuckles seemed too stunned to comment, and Sonic only seemed capable of facepalming, so Silver spoke up. "Of course," he said, using a tone like one might use to calm a child or a feral animal. "We know. Let's not think about that, okay?"

The anger drained out of Mephiles and left him looking confused. "…Okay? What's going on?"

Tails' eyes brightened. "Ohhhh. He latched onto it as a trigger. Like the green thing."

Silver groaned and buried his face in a pillow. "Can we please stop talking about my weird memory issues?" he said, voice heavily muffled. "We get it, I'm the weird one, let's move on please."

"And we've got more important things to talk about," Sonic said. "Like, what _are_ we gonna do about housing? He can't stay with us because of… you know."

Tails shrugged. "He can stay here, if he's okay with the noise." They turned to Mephiles.

"…Noise isn't a problem. Why would it be?"

Sonic raised a brow. "Some of us sleep better when there's not constant clanging going on."

"Sleep?" Mephiles tried to place the word, then gave up. "What's that?"

Silence.

"You know," Sonic said, "if it was safe for Meph and Sir Ultimate out there to be in the same room, they'd be fast friends."

" _Sonic_." Silver sighed. "Mephiles, sleep is something most beings do to heal and replenish energy. Maybe you don't have to."

"Oh," he said, hoping his sudden discomfort didn't show too much. Why was he so different from other people?

"Welp," Sonic said, jumping to his feet, "I'll go talk to our friend. Be right back." He dashed out.

The remaining four stared at each other in awkward silence. Silver's gaze happened to fall on the TV. "Hey, Mephiles. Are you familiar with video games?"

"You're kidding me," Shadow said flatly.

"Nope. It does sound pretty insane, huh?"

Shadow sighed. "Not as insane as some of your adventures. At least this one is somewhat logical."

"Should I be offended by that?"

"No. It's simple truth." Shadow easily dodged the clod of dirt kicked at him. "Mature."

"Whatever. That isn't the point."

"No, the point is that you're taking one of our most powerful enemies at his word."

Sonic shot him an exasperated look and folded his arms. "You just said you believe it."

Shadow replicated the pose. "I said it's logical. You can't tell me this isn't suspicious."

"Of course it is," Sonic groaned. "But it makes sense. His whole life was centered around Solaris, so he lost _all_ his memories."

"And there's another problem. How does he still exist?"

Sonic flung his hands up in the air. "How should I know! He still exists, he's got the weird memory thing, and he thinks packing peanuts are evil!"

Shadow's face went blank. "Packing peanuts."

Sonic shrugged. "Tails thinks it's like Silver's green thing. Honestly, it was funny the first time, but now it's just kind of weird."

"Very well. I believe you."

"About the packing peanuts?"

He received a scathing look. "About his memory. Mephiles never had much sense of humor."

"Okay, what?" Now Sonic was annoyed. "So him acting scared wasn't enough to convince you, but being angry at packing peanuts is?"

"He did _what?!_ " Saying Shadow was shocked would have been a massive understatement. Sonic might have pronounced himself pregnant with Shadow's child and gotten less reaction.

"I did mention that," Sonic said. "If you'd been listening-"

" _Mephiles_ acted _scared?_ "

"That's what I just said. Again."

"…I can't picture it."

Sonic rolled his eyes. "If we can get you two in a room without him blue screening, you won't have to."

Shadow frowned thoughtfully. "Would he? The worst flashbacks were usually caused by new inputs, blackouts aside. So the problem should be lessened by exposure."

Sonic blinked a few times. "Didn't think of that. Don't think Tails did either."

"Go ask," Shadow said, barely getting to finish his sentence before Sonic was already back inside. "Idiot," he said, smirking.

"Back," Sonic said, skidding to a halt. He stopped and stared. "What?"

Nobody reacted to his arrival. Silver and Mephiles were too focused on the game, and the others were trying not to laugh.

"No, you're supposed to use the wisp on – okay, that works. You're on my head. Why are you on my – oh for Chaos sake!"

"Well if these 'controls' made sense, you wouldn't have fallen into the pit!"

"Whatever. You'll get it eventually. Wait, stand on my head!"

"You just said-"

"I know, but here we can- yes! Super drill!"

Tails finally looked up. "Oh, hey, Sonic. Silver decided to introduce him to video games."

Sonic snorted and leaned on the couch. "I noticed. But Sonic Colors? Really?"

"It's a good game," Silver said, not looking away from the screen. He paused when they hit a checkpoint and turned to Sonic. "So?"

"Weeeell," he said, "he was wondering if seeing each other more would stop the flashbacks. It's mostly new stuff that caused them, right?"

"Wait one second," Knuckles cut in. "You're saying he wants to cause a flashback _on purpose?!_ "

"Knuckles, wait," Silver said quickly. "He has a point. We know repeated exposure is a thing."

The echidna still looked unconvinced. "Tails, what do you say?"

"Hmmm… I can't say for sure. But Silver has a point." His face took on a determined look. "We can't know unless we try."

"Wait, what are we trying?" Now that he wasn't focused on the game, Mephiles remembered that he probably shouldn't let his guard down around these people. Especially the red one.

Silver hesitated. "Well… we think that you might get fewer flashbacks if you're exposed to more triggers. And our friend is a major one."

"How can you tell?" he asked with narrowed eyes.

Sonic shrugged. "Because you had a blackout flashback when you saw him."

Mephiles started to speak, then clamped his mouth shut (metaphorically), looking faintly queasy.

Silver cautiously placed a hand on Mephiles' shoulder. "If it makes you feel any better, I got some bad ones too."

"Yeah," Knuckles said. "Every time you met one of us."

"Give me a break, I lost a huge chunk of my memory!"

Mephiles ignored this exchange, staring at Silver's hand with an unreadable expression. He slowly reached up, took hold of Silver's arm, and pushed it down to the seat between them. Everyone watched this procedure in silence.

Silver spoke up after a moment. "…Can I have my arm back?"

Mephiles blinked, realizing he hadn't relaxed his hold on Silver's arm. He chose to pretend he hadn't heard the question.

"Sooooo… should I get him?" Sonic asked eventually.

Tails nodded. "The sooner we know, the better." And Sonic was off again. "By the way, in case you missed it, I'm Tails. I'm a mechanic, mostly, but I know a lot about medicine from being Sonic's best friend. That's Knuckles. Don't let him scare you, he's just stubborn and protective."

"Don't tell me you're just going to trust him!"

The fox gave Knuckles a look. "Come on, you're supposed to be one of our more observant people. Don't you remember signals at all?"

"What are-" The lightbulb above his head was almost tangible. "Oh."

Mephiles narrowed his eyes in a scowl. "What is this subtle sign that makes everyone trust me? Please, I'm dying to know."

The door creaked before anyone replied. Everyone turned as the two hedgehogs reentered the room.

If Mephiles were more familiar with typical biology, he would have said he heard his blood rushing in his ears. As it was, he only knew that all sound vanished, and a series of images and sensations passed through his head: glass, movement, running, darkness.

The moment passed and he began to regain his senses. Someone was talking.

"-go? Okay, seriously, ow. Tails, do you have a crowbar somewhere? I can't get him off."

He blinked a few times as his eyes refocused. Then he glanced down and realized he was holding Silver's arm far too tightly and oh shoot that's blood. He yanked his hand away like it was on fire and squeezed his eyes shut, bracing himself for whatever they would do.

"Well, Sonic," an unfamiliar voice said, "I believe you now."

"Shadow, now is not the time. Silver, are you-?"

"I'm fine. Mephiles, you okay?"

He cautiously opened one eye a crack and saw Silver giving him a worried look. "You… aren't mad about…?" He glanced at Silver's arm, where pale grey fur was turning red.

"Huh? Oh, this?" He shrugged. "I've done worse to myself tripping on nothing."

"…"

"What?"

" _How?_ "

"Enough." Everyone jumped at Shadow's voice. "The point of this exercise is not to discuss Silver's clumsiness and its defiance of basic physics. Mephiles."

Mephiles looked steadfastly down at his shoes. "I'm fine. A little disconcerted, but that's all."

"In that case, I'm a bit more offended by my arm."

Mephiles looked at Silver, face carefully blank. Silver held up his hands. "I'm kidding, don't worry so much."

"What makes you think I was worried?" More like how did you know, but he wasn't about to say that.

"Well." He glanced at the others, who shrugged or turned away. "Wow, helpful. It's because you aren't suppressing your signals at all, so anyone with decent empathy can read them."

"Okay. Now explain in a way I actually understand."

"It's kind of-" Tails began before being interrupted by Silver.

"Hey, Sonic, maybe we should call Amy, she could explain better."

" _What?!_ I mean, uh, let's not. Heh." The momentary shock vanished behind Sonic's usual grin, but he still seemed nervous somehow.

"Okay. That was an example of how the signals work." He ignored Sonic's annoyed reply. "Basically, it's a form of species-specific body language. It's easy for me to understand hedgehogs and similar species, but I'm not as good at reading, say, Tails."

The thought of having his emotions on obvious display was not pleasant. "You said it can be suppressed?"

Tails nodded. "Right. It takes some effort, but once you get it, you're set."

"I'd be happy to teach you," Silver said.

Mephiles shrugged. "If you want." From Silver's smile, he concluded his gratitude was showing more than he'd intended.

Silver blinked and looked around. "Hey, where'd everyone go?"

They were surprised to see that Sonic, Shadow, and Knuckles had all vanished. "That explains the weird silence," Tails said. "But I'm surprised we didn't notice."

"Well, they were in a hurry," Sonic said as he rejoined them. "Knux and his emerald as per usual, and Shadow has some sort of GUN mission."

"They could have said something."

Sonic shrugged. "You know them as well as I do, so not really. Anyway, I have a date with Egghead to finish, so… catch you later!" the vacant space finished.

Tails sighed in fond exasperation. "Can't even stick around to finish his sentence."

Silver snorted and stood. "That's Sonic for you. Anyway, I should go tell Blaze and Amy the news."

"Can't you just call?"

Tails and Silver both looked at Mephiles. "Why?" Silver asked. "It's not far, and this sort of thing goes better in person."

Mephiles was silent. He wasn't about to admit that he didn't really want Silver to leave, especially since he wasn't exactly sure why. "It just seems like a waste of time."

Silver and Tails exchanged a glance. Silver shrugged. Tails shook his head slightly. "It can wait. They'll be by later to pick up Amy's toaster."

"Still with the toast genies?"

"I did warn her about Sonic's experience, but she didn't realize how frustrating it would get."

Mephiles shook his head slowly. "I will never understand any of you."

"Probably a good thing." Silver flopped back down on the couch. "I think it's about time we changed games. Tails, Olympic Winter Games?"

"Only if I get to play too."

"Well, yeah!"

* * *

 **These jokes are amazing and nobody can tell me otherwise.  
**


	3. Questions of Living

**Meant to get this up earlier, but got delayed. Sorry about that. Also, I'm kind of surprised at the attention this is getting. Thanks so much for reading!  
**

* * *

Sonic dropped the controller in disbelief. "What the heck, Silver!"

Silver smiled at him, the picture of innocence. "I get bombs, I use them."

"On me? Every time?"

"Maybe."

Tails laughed and picked the next game. "C'mon, Sonic, how about we take him down in Dream Hockey?"

"Is it different from regular hockey?" Mephiles asked, studying the controls.

Silver shook his head. "Not really. Except there are power ups and stuff to make it more exciting."

A few minutes later, the round ended on a tie. "Oh, come on," Silver grumbled. "Playing this as a skill type _sucks_."

"It's not that bad," Tails said. "But it is getting kind of boring. Sonic, d'you think we could play as characters other than ourselves?"

The blue hero gave an exaggerated sigh. "Fiiiiiine. But after we finish the tie breaker."

"Obviously," Mephiles muttered with an eye roll. (He was playing as Shadow, since he didn't have a character.)

They had just finished the tie breaker ("In your _face_ , Silver!" "Sonic, shut up." "No.") when the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it." Tails stood, only to be stopped by Sonic.

"Nah, I'll get it. In return for making stupid rules." And he was off.

Tails opened his mouth, closed it, and shook his head. "It's probably-"

They heard a feminine shriek, a startled yelp, and a painful thud in quick succession. The three exchanged glances and went to investigate.

Amy had stood up and was bouncing in place with a bright smile on her face. Sonic was picking himself up off the ground (somewhat less brightly). "You should have told me you were here, I would have come sooner! Then we could have gone to the park sooner. The flowers are so pretty this year, it would be so nice and-" She stopped and looked briefly confused before her eyes filled with flames and an oversized hammer appeared in her hand. "Get away from them!" she yelled, charging.

Sonic stepped in front of her, hands out. "Wait a sec, Amy!"

Mephiles took an involuntary step back. "Is everyone I meet going to try to kill me?!"

Sonic laughed nervously, but Amy cut in before he could reply. "Of course! You killed my Sonic!"

Tails yelped and clutched his head as her words unexpectedly triggered a memory. Silver only flinched. Sonic gave them a surprised but sympathetic look.

Amy blinked. "I thought we'd regained all our memories already?"

"Looks like we were wrong," Tails said, wincing. "I just don't get why you never mentioned it."

"It only came up that once, so I assumed we weren't talking about it!"

"Forget that for a sec," Silver said. "We've got more sorting to do."

"Does it involve me dying?" Mephiles asked. "If so, I'll be leaving now."

Silver crossed his arms. "You aren't going anywhere, and nobody is going to die. We already decided you get a free reset, and you haven't messed it up yet. Amy put the hammer away."

Mephiles hmphed and looked away, not even really caring that he was probably projecting relief. He heard Amy make a startled sound and turned back to see her staring at him in shock. Great, what stunning thing did he do this time?

"Oh," she said quietly. "I didn't think… sorry, I hadn't realized. Eh… would you get mad if I hugged you?"

"Yes." He scowled pointedly.

"Anyway," Tails said, "it's getting late." He pointed through the open door at the dark sky. "Anyone not sleeping over should probably head home."

"If you don't mind, I'll stay," Silver said. "You know my night vision sucks. And I'm not sure I want to leave you two alone. No offense, Mephiles."

Mephiles shrugged. "There's no reason to trust me. I don't especially care."

"If that's settled, me and Sonic can be going!" Amy said.

Sonic smiled awkwardly. "Yeah… I'd rather go alone." He zipped off before she could protest.

Amy hmphed and turned to Tails. "So where's my toaster?"

"In the lab, follow me." The pair walked off, Tails adding, "By the way, why'd you decide to get it this late at night?"

Silver watched them leave, then turned back to Mephiles. "I doubt I'll be able to sleep for a while. Want to watch a movie?" He took his noncommittal shrug as a yes. "Okay, I'll see what there is."

A few minutes later, Tails joined them. He looked at the screen, raising an eyebrow. "Comedy? I thought you liked cheesy explosions."

"Not this close to sleeping," Silver said with a shudder.

Tails made a face. "Right, nightmares. I forgot about that."

"Why fire?" Mephiles asked. "It hardly seems dangerous to a telekinetic."

The other two looked at him in silence. "We could explain," Silver said, "though it might be simpler to trigger a flashback… then again, that wouldn't be very-"

"Do it. They're not that bad."

Silver gave him a doubtful look, but didn't argue. "Alright, I'll list a bunch of things that could trigger something. Let's see… Iblis. Iblis Trigger. Solaris. Flames of Disaster." Silver frowned when Mephiles failed to react. "Uh… Soleanna. Princess Elise. …That's all I can think of. Nothing?"

"Nothing. You'll have to explain after all."

Something beeped in another room. "I'll leave it to you two. I need to check that." Tails scurried out.

Silver sighed. "Alright, here goes. Though it's weird you aren't getting flashbacks to it. It's your history we're talking about."

Elsewhere, the sound of keys tapping permeated a mostly abandoned laboratory. Two figures stood at a console, studying it carefully as a third typed. From time to time, they glanced back at a large tube in the center of a room. Something akin to a miniature sun pulsed gently behind the glass.

Mephiles was silent for a moment when Silver finished speaking. "Strangely, I find your story believable. But it doesn't sound at all familiar."

"That is weird. But I don't think it's worth worrying about." Mephiles made a neutral sound. "Let's just watch the movie." He hit the play button with his powers.

Tails came back as the credits were rolling. "Sorry, that took longer than I thought. Want me to show you to the guest rooms?"

"Nah. I kind of like your couches, and Mephiles doesn't seem to mind."

Mephiles stirred at the sound of his name, but quickly settled again, eyes not even opening.

Tails was surprised, but quickly regained his composure. (He'd had a lot of practice over the years.) "In that case, can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Sure. But let's go somewhere else. I'm not sure how heavy a sleeper he is."

They ended up in the kitchen. "So what's up?" Silver asked, leaning against the kitchen.

"It's about Mephiles, actually. Do you know why he's so attached to you?"

He blinked. "Huh?"

"Don't tell me you haven't noticed. He's doing that clingy denial thing."

Silver's eyes widened slightly. "You're right. I hadn't thought of that."

"Mmhmm. And I have an idea, but I wanted to hear from you first."

"The only reason I can think of is that I met him first."

Tails nodded. "And defended him when everyone else was doubtful. My guess is that he remembers you being with him more or less, at least subconsciously, so you're less threatening to begin with."

"I'm not sure I like that idea much, since he tricked me into being on his side back then."

"Sorry. It's just a guess, though, so it could be wrong. And the other things probably have some effect."

"True." Silver yawned. "I think I'm gonna sleep now. Night, Tails."

"Night, Silver."

The next morning, Sonic and Shadow came knocking at Tails' door bright and early. There was some muffled shouting back and forth before Silver opened the door, looking remarkably cheerful for that time of morning.

"Hey guys!" His smile dimmed a little when their eyes zeroed in on his face. He self-consciously covered his bruised eye with one hand. "Trust me, it's not as bad as it looks."

Sonic edged past him to the entryway. "What did you even do? Bash your face on the doorknob again?"

"First off, that was one time. Second, never wake Mephiles before he's slept out. He's less of a morning person than Shadow."

"That's actually possible?"

"He hit you?"

The pair spoke at almost the same instant. Sonic's amusement faded as he registered Shadow's words.

Silver was quicker to see the dark aura around him. "It wasn't on purpose! And besides, I've taken worse hits in matches with you guys. It just looks bad because he got my eye."

"So you're just going to let it go?"

"Shadow." Silver gave him a look. "You've done the same a few times. It's only fair for him to get the same treatment."

Shadow gave him a doubtful look, but continued past him into Tails' main workroom. The sounds of a conversation floated back.

"You're okay, then?" Sonic checked.

"My sight's a little off, but otherwise yeah. Black eyes always worse on me, remember."

"True. So how's our new friend? Aside from cranky."

"Not so cranky now that he's awake."

"Yeah, about that. I thought he didn't need to sleep?"

"That's what it sounded like. Who knows?" Silver headed for the entertainment room. "It's not like I asked before the memory wipe."

Mephiles glanced up as they approached, then turned back to the TV.

"Tom and Jerry?" Sonic sat on the untaken couch. Silver sat beside Mephiles.

Mephiles shrugged. "It's amusing."

"It's also the first thing we agreed on."

"TV isn't that interesting."

Sonic chuckled. "Have to agree with you there. I'd rather be out running."

"I've noticed," Mephiles said in a dry tone.

Sonic jumped to his feet. "I have an idea! How about we test your combat ability?" He received two shocked looks. "Come on, it'll be fun! And we can help Mephiles figure out his powers before something important explodes."

Silver turned to Mephiles. "He has a point. How much control do you have right now?"

"I can make explosions somewhat reliably, if that's what you mean."

Silver stood and held out a hand. "Then show us."

Mephiles looked at him a moment before standing, pointedly ignoring the proffered hand. He turned to Sonic. "Lead the way."

A minute later, the trio was standing in Tails' spacious backyard. Various obstacles and bits of machinery were scattered across the space. Several platforms stood a few meters above the ground, as well as a pile of scraps that might once have been another tower. Everything was heavily splattered with paint.

"Why-"

"-does it look like a unicorn threw up?" Sonic grinned.

"I was going to ask why everything's covered with paint."

"Exactly!" Sonic barely dodged the glowing block thrown his way. "Not nice, Silver."

The glowing aura around Silver's hands vanished. "We don't joke about paintball."

Sonic rolled his eyes. "Just because you were green for one week-"

"Do I need to throw another block?"

"I'm good, thanks. Now, Meph, how about we get started?" He picked up some kind of remote and pushed a button. A nearby sphere glowed orange, sprouted helicopter blades and began hovering at about chest height. Sonic turned to speak again, but paused. "What's with that look?"

"Did you just call me Meph?"

Sonic shrugged. "Well, yeah. I call most of my friends by nicknames."

Mephiles suddenly went unreadable. "Oh."

Sonic blinked. "Silver already taught you suppression?"

Silver shook his head. "I gave him a short explanation and he figured it out himself."

"Apparently I'm a fast learner."

Sonic whistled. "I'll say. I'm awful at it, and I've had my whole life to learn."

"Maybe it's cause your quills are more straight back," Silver suggested.

"Or time travel."

"Shadow didn't time travel much."

"He, sort of did? But he also had time to learn."

"Is there a point to this?" Mephiles cut in.

"Mephiles, you'll soon see what the rest of us have come to realize: that nothing Sonic does has a point."

Sonic shoved Silver into a pile of tires. "Shut up." He turned back to Mephiles. "Anyway, see if you can Chaos Blast that thing."

Mephiles raised a brow. "You regularly destroy your training devices? Sounds wasteful."

"Nah. They're made of the same stuff you find on game dungeon floors, it's pretty much unbreakable."

Mephiles just gave him a confused look.

Silver sighed. "Don't worry about it. I'd be worried if that made sense to you. Just try and blow it up."

He focused on the thing and tried to blow it up.

"Nice," Sonic said, poking the blackened ground with his toe. "You only do that on command, right?"

"As far as I know."

The white hedgehog visibly relaxed. "That's good news. Say, is chaos blast the only thing you know?"

"Of course not. I know a lot of things. For example, I know this is stupid."

"Wise guy."

"Hey guys!" The trio turned to see Tails waving from the doorway. "Can you come inside for a minute?"

Sonic shrugged. "Not like we had time to do much of anything yet, but okay." He followed Tails back to the main room, the others close behind.


	4. Same yet Different

**This is unbeta'd, so please tell me if you find anything weird. Also because I'd like to hear if anyone has theories on what's going on. Because there is a method behind the madness. Mostly. (Random question: what do you think of the sort-of philosophical chapter titles?)  
**

* * *

Shadow was focused on a portable screen on one table and barely looked up when they entered. "As far as I can tell, all the readings are stable."

"Let's see." Tails stepped up as Shadow moved aside. He tapped the screen and the display changed. "Looks good to me. Could you tell them what you told me earlier?"

"I don't see why you can't explain."

"Because you understand chaos energy a lot better than I can."

"…Fine." Shadow turned to the rest of the group. "Mephiles' chaos energy is… strange. I know this is a given," he added, seeing their unimpressed looks. "But it's different from when we were enemies. More… natural."

"Natural?" Sonic said. "That doesn't tell us much."

Shadow scowled. "Be quiet, faker. I wasn't done."

"Not my fault you're talking too slow."

Silver coughed to get their attention. "If Shadow could finish?" he said pointedly.

"Thank you. Now as I was saying, his chaos energy is more natural now. I expect everyone remembers his true form? …No, you morons, the crystal one. Solaris doesn't figure in this at all. Mephiles' chaos energy used to be mostly stationary, like the crystalline form he took. Right now, it's flowing like that of a normal sapient, but slower."

A moment passed before anyone spoke. A sly grin grew on Sonic's face. Shadow saw, but was disinclined to do anything about it.

"Awww, Mephy's becoming a real boy," Sonic cooed. He smirked at Tails and Silver's annoyed (and Mephiles' confused) expressions. "Come on, that's obviously what's happening. Who cares why?"

"Does that make you the blue fairy?" Shadow asked.

"Nah. I'd say it's the silver fairy this time. Or white or gray, whatever you wanna go with."

Everyone turned toward the implied character. Silver blinked. "What? Why me?" He frowned when Sonic and Tails exchanged a Look. "I know we've been getting along," he glanced pointedly at Tails, "but you're talking like this is some sort of shipping fic." Sonic tweeted a whistle he'd gotten out of nowhere. Silver rolled his eyes. "I know, fourth wall. Still."

"You know," Tails said, "I called you inside so we could get some readings on Mephiles' chaos energy." Seeing Mephiles' doubtful expression, he quickly added, "You don't have to. I just figure we might be able to understand what's going on better with some data."

Mephiles still hesitated. "What do you do to get these readings?"

Shadow gestured toward the lab. "There's a machine in there. You stand in a tube and it scans your chaos signature. It doesn't harm you."

"But it feels _weird_ ," Sonic said with an exaggerated shudder. "Like being squashed between two water beds."

Silver shook his head. "Sonic, you know it varies by person. It could be anything, but it's usually uncomfortable."

Shadow nodded. "The sensation isn't painful. But having your life energy looked at is unpleasant."

"This isn't making me feel better about this."

"It really won't hurt you," Tails assured. "After all, everyone who uses it comes out fine."

"…Fine."

Five minutes later, they were gathered around a screen in the main lab (Mephiles still rubbing at the numbness in his arms). Tails hit a button, bringing two images up on the screen. Both looked like a model of a body's veins done in green. The color moved around on a five second loop.

"Shadow's and Meph's energy?" Sonic guessed.

Tails nodded. "Exactly. Now we can't be certain, but…" He pushed a few more buttons and a third, mostly stationary image appeared. "Shadow, does this look anything like the old Mephiles' chaos energy?"

Shadow examined the image and nodded. "It's reasonably close, considering the limits of a visual representation."

"…Right. Well, Mephiles' current pattern is right about midway between the two."

"So Mephiles actually is becoming more like a living being?" Silver asked.

Shadow shrugged. "In terms of chaos energy, at least."

"That's all we can say for now," Tails said. "I can look into this, but that'll take a while. Until we get a better understanding of Meph's… status… we should proceed with caution." The fox thought for a moment. "Since you're going to ask anyway, I don't think there's a problem with you using chaos techniques. Just be careful."

"On that note, what were you three doing in the yard?" Shadow asked.

"I was asked to demonstrate my abilities."

"I see. Will you continue the exercise now?"

Mephiles looked at Silver and Sonic, who shrugged. "If there's a chance of learning something new, then yes."

"In that case, I'll assist. These two can't teach you anything useful."

"Hey!" Silver protested. "It's not my fault nobody taught me chaos powers."

"And mine are fine, at least when I've got an emerald," Sonic huffed.

"Exactly. Neither of you would be any good at teaching, because you aren't familiar with the subject matter. Do you object?"

Mephiles shrugged. "Do what you want."

The four headed back outside. Silver telekinetically grabbed a remote, then bashed it into his face. "Ow. Stupid depth perception," he grumbled, tapping the buttons to activate a few robots.

Shadow gave him a flat look. "You say this as though it could actually worsen your clumsiness."

"Excuse me, but I'm usually fine with my powers."

"He's got a point," Sonic said. "I mean, that is why he's clumsy in the first place." He zipped up one of the towers. "Are we starting yet?"

Silver flew up next to him (and had to be balanced when he almost missed the platform). "I'm sure we'll start once the banter stops."

Shadow ignored them and turned back to Mephiles. "From what I understand, you only know how to use a chaos blast. Those take too much energy to be used consistently. As such, you should use them only when necessary."

"What do you use?"

"Chaos spear. It's easier to control and uses a more sustainable amount of energy. You simply do this." He gathered energy in his hand. "Chaos… spear!" The energy shot out and hit one of the hovering robots, causing a not insubstantial explosion. "Now you try."

Mephiles thought for a moment. It didn't seem too hard. He looked down at his hand, trying to focus his energy like he had for the blasts. Much slower than Shadow's demonstration, energy began to gather around his hand… then fizzled out.

Five minutes later, he still hadn't made the energy stay for more than a second.

Shadow, neutral expression unchanged, finally spoke. "It appears we need to work on sustaining charged energy first."

Mephiles whirled to glare at him. "You _think_?!" he snapped. He then yelped and jumped back as an explosion singed his fur.

Shadow, having noticed the gathering energy, was less singed but equally surprised. He quickly collected himself. "It seems I overestimated your control. We'll need to work on that first. Though you do display unwonted skill for a beginner."

Mephiles wasn't sure whether he'd been complimented or insulted. Silver quickly spoke up. "He means you did pretty well, with the experience you have. Now that I think about it, I don't think I saw you use chaos powers before." He shot a questioning glance at Shadow, who nodded, and another at the hedgehog shaped vacancy next to him, which failed to respond. "Where – no, when did he leave?"

Shadow shrugged. "Hardly matters. We'll see him again when it's least convenient." The end of his sentence was partly drowned out as Mephiles managed to throw a small energy ball a few feet away, where it promptly exploded. Loudly, and with a lot of smoke.

Silver watched them cough and wave away the smoke until the air had mostly cleared, then jumped down beside them. "Nice start. When I was learning my powers, my first mistake almost knocked me off a skyscraper. By comparison, that actually wasn't too bad." They both gave him unimpressed looks. "It's not like you can even see it on dark fur, so you can just stop that."

Sonic chose that moment to reappear behind Silver, now carrying a large bag. He began rummaging through it as he spoke. "Sorry 'bout that. I was getting hungry, so I decided to go get snacks for everyone. Hey, Silver, think fast!"

Silver yelped and dove to the side, barely dodging what appeared to be a banana cream pie. The projectile carried on its merry way until it encountered its inadvertent target – Mephiles.

Sonic choked on a laugh, Silver stared wide-eyed, and Shadow facepalmed, muttering about immature pranks. Mephiles just stood there a moment, posture practically radiating 'unimpressed.' He slowly reached up and took hold of the pie plate, pulling it off and beginning to scrape filling off his face. "I don't understand-" Whatever he didn't understand went unspoken. He froze mid-sentence, then began scraping filling off almost frantically. Once he'd cleaned off most of the mess, he turned back to them, very distinctly freaked out. "What was _that_?"

Sonic blinked. "…Banana cream pie. Something wrong?"

Mephiles just stared at him, looking completely lost. Silver spoke hesitantly. "Mephiles… what happened?"

Mephiles calmed down enough to reply, albeit shakily. "I don't know… it just felt weird." His eyes narrowed. "And I think some of that went up my nose."

Sonic chuckled weakly as everyone glared at him. "Shoulda thought that one through a little more, huh?"

"Probably," Silver said. "Meph, if you want to avoid our whole prank war, I'll be happy to get revenge for you."

"Prank war. This is an actual thing." He was unsure whether to be amused or nonplussed.

Shadow tossed him a damp cloth. He caught it without questioning when or where he'd gotten it. Shadow spoke as he wiped his face clean. "Unfortunately, yes. Though I still don't know how I became involved in this nonsense."

"Blame Sonic," Silver advised. "Anything like that without apparent cause is probably his fault."

"Hey, the cooking thing was on both of us."

"Faker, I'm not the one who instigated any of those incidents, nor have I ever burned juice."

Mephiles coughed to regain their attention. "So. Cooking. Great. Could we move on to something productive? Like explaining how to manage chaos energy? Not to belittle the importance of petty revenge schemes."

Shadow shrugged. "Feel free. The whole thing is inane. Now let's follow through with your suggestion."

Less than five minutes later, Shadow and Sonic were arguing again. Mephiles watched them briefly, then shrugged and turned to Silver. "You know what you said earlier?"

Silver blinked. "What do you mean?"

"The bit about revenge for the pie."

"Oh. Yeah, what about it?"

"Whatever you plan, count on an accomplice."

A slow smile spread across Silver's face. "Can do."

The lesson was eventually paused as everyone decided to break for lunch. (Mephiles was just happy not to burn himself for a while.)

Silver glanced around, frowning. "I feel sort of bad. We're all eating except Meph."

Mephiles shrugged. "Don't. I don't see that it's a problem. Eating seems like a waste of time."

"You might need to deal with that time waste eventually," Tails said, stepping into the room. He began to fix himself a sandwich, seemingly oblivious to the confused looks thrown his way.

Silver eventually spoke up. "Are you going to explain that?"

He looked up and noticed their faces. "Sorry, I'd assumed it was obvious. With Mephiles' energy becoming more natural, he's acquiring some natural traits. Like sleeping or emoting. Sooner or later, he might show more. But I'm hoping that needing food won't happen without some way for him to actually eat. Hey, are you okay?"

During this speech, Mephiles had begun looking pale. He shook his head when attention turned to him. "Fine. Just fine. Let's all hope that doesn't happen anytime soon. I'm going to go watch that cartoon some more." He got up and left without waiting for a reply.

Everyone stared blankly at the door. "He must really not like the idea of eating," Silver said. Sonic snorted, and they continued eating.

Silver stood and watched Mephiles' game for a minute before sitting on the couch next to him. "You done freaking out?"

Mephiles' character fell down a chasm. He stared at the Game Over screen before turning with narrowed eyes to glare at Silver. "I wasn't 'freaking out.' I was removing myself from an unpleasant situation. _Calmly_."

"Meph. I understand not wanting to talk about things. But don't even try that. Seriously, you're worse than Shadow at plausible deniability, and that's saying something."

Mephiles exited the screen, but remained on the main menu for several seconds. "I think I might have that eating adaptation."

Silver was very glad he'd finished eating. Otherwise he might have choked. "You _what_?!"

He continued to look away. "Earlier, when Sonic threw the pie, I felt… some of it was sort of absorbed, and I smelled it, but it wasn't smell."

"Tails might be able to help more than-"

"It was _weird_ ," he continued, as if Silver hadn't spoken. "Not in a good way, but not really in a bad way either. Just really, really weird. And I'm not sure how I feel about it being necessary to live." His eyes flicked over to Silver, then darted back to the screen.

Silver sat in uncertain silence for several seconds, trying to formulate a response. "I don't really know how to help," he finally said. "Tails could answer any questions on the science behind it, but I don't think anyone could help you deal with it otherwise. The closest I've come to gaining a new sense like that is… well, when I first came to the past and realized that green and blue were colors that existed outside of stories. But I'd always been able to see, so I guess that isn't all that similar. Sorry."

Mephiles shrugged. "I don't expect anyone to understand. And hadn't expected you to try. I… appreciate the effort."

"You're welcome, I guess. But why did you decide to tell me? Just because I came in here first?"

He snorted. "Hardly. I wouldn't have said that much to just anyone."

"How come?"

"I'm… not sure. But you're… you feel safe. I'm not as worried about what I tell you." He spoke hesitantly, avoiding eye contact as he did.

"Yeah, Tails had a thought about that."

"He has thoughts about everything, doesn't he?"

"Better for one person to have most answers than everyone to have none."

"Hmph."

"Anyway. I'm paraphrasing some, but during the… adventure, we were allies for a while."

"I thought I was the bad guy."

"Yeah, well, I wasn't experienced with trickery. The point is, you might remember me as being on your side on some level."

Mephiles scrunched one eye in a sort of grimace. "That's a positive start."

"Not my idea. Not even a sure thing. Just a possibility."

He remained silent and started his game. _He's really like Shadow at times,_ Silver thought. "Okay, enough about that. Doesn't matter much anyway. What do you say we plot that revenge?"

Mephiles didn't even need a mouth to express his evil smirk. "Sounds good."

Mephiles jolted awake. He stared wide-eyed at the ceiling, trying to get his bearings.

After spending most of the day practicing with his energy, he would have happily collapsed on the couch. But nooo, Silver insisted on dragging him to the kitchen for some kind of eating experiment (thank chaos he couldn't remember how that went) before sending/shoving him into one of the guest bedrooms with a comment about not sleeping on the couch again. He thought Shadow might still be there, but wasn't sure. Silver he knew was there. He was sleeping in the bed across the room. Or not. Now that Mephiles looked, Silver was sitting up and rubbing his eyes sleepily. Now if only he knew what had woken them before the sun even thought about rising.

 _CLANG._

Mephiles suddenly found himself staring at a surface inches from his face and barely stopped himself from trying to sit up. That would have gone real well. Now where was he?"

"Meph?!"

Still in the room, it seemed. "What, Silver?"

Footsteps approached him, and something was pulled up to show Silver leaning down to look into the space. "How did you get under the bed?"

"No idea." He reluctantly took Silver's extended hand and pulled himself out. "But I have a more pressing question: what was that noise?"

"I can answer that."

Mephiles jumped at the unexpected input. He and Silver turned to see Shadow leaning on the door frame, looking much more awake than either of them. The dark being narrowed his eyes. "How long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough. Do you want your question answered?" Mephiles remained silent. "I thought so. Based on Tails' comments when he passed me in the hall, that was one of his projects. I recommend getting used to it for as long as you stay here. On a side note… my compliments for managing to phase through the bed _on accident_. That takes skill."

Mephiles blinked. "I what."

Silver's eyes widened. "Oh. That explains it."

"If people could stop being pointlessly cryptic and explain things _before_ being stunned-"

Silver glared at him. "Shut up. Shadow was talking about your dark powers, which we don't actually know much about."

"So because you didn't know about them, you didn't bother mentioning them."

"Er, well-"

"Hardly," Shadow said over Silver's stuttering. "It hadn't come up yet." Mephiles gave him a suspicious look. Shadow gave him a dry one. "Name one good reason for us to withhold that information."

"Caution. Or spite."

"Spite for what?"

"I don't know, maybe _everything I did before I lost my memory?!_ "

Silver stepped between them. "Enough already! This is pointless. Meph, you should know we don't hold that against you. And Shadow, do you have to pick fights at two in the morning? Honestly." He shook his head before glaring at each individually. "I'm going back to sleep now. If you two keep arguing, do it somewhere else or I'll throw you out the window." He turned, climbed back into bed, and pulled the blankets over his head.

Shadow shrugged and left, closing the door behind him. Mephiles decided he ought to get some more sleep as well. He'd need it to survive another day in this crazy place.


	5. Moving House

**Sorry for posting a day late. It's still less edited than I'd like, though, so please do tell me if you spot anything that seems especially awkward. Hopefully I'll get a chance to fix it up soon.**

 **Also, quick warning: there's been a time skip since the end of last chapter. Further explanation is there, but I figure it might be disorienting if you haven't seen the last bit for a week.**

* * *

"Meph, if you're in there, this is your warning. I'm starving."

Mephiles threw his bowl at the kitchen sink. "Fine. I was already done anyway."

Silver entered the kitchen and began fixing himself a bowl of cereal. "You know, eventually you'll need to get used to eating in front of people. What if someone was visiting and you needed a snack?"

"I would rather wait a week than eat in front of anyone. Note that this is nearly the length of my conscious lifespan."

"We've explained why you can't do that. At least twice, since you plugged your ears and 'la la la'd through the first time." He sat across from Mephiles, but didn't start eating just yet. "Anyway, once you change houses, you'll have to deal with eating in other peoples' presence."

"Remind me again why I'm moving to hedgehogtopia."

"Because you didn't listen last time, or because you want to argue?"

"Take your pick."

Silver facepalmed. "I can't even – you know what, I don't even care anymore. First, it'll make it easier for Shadow to monitor your energy. Now that your powers are really starting to emerge, that's important. Second, we all know full well you won't bother to get out of the house at all once I'm not here to make you."

"And why are you leaving?"

"That would be reason number three. We've had maybe two nights when one of Tails' projects didn't wake us up in the middle of the night. Even for a semi-organic like you, sleep's important, and there's no way you've been getting enough." Mephiles' eyes scrunched in a yawn. "I rest my case."

"Shadow doesn't sleep."

"He sleeps a few hours every week. Besides, he's the ultimate lifeform. Sharing his appearance and sharing his abilities are two separate things."

"Is sharing a central location somehow relevant to either one?"

Silver gave him a flat look and took a bite of cereal. Mephiles sat and watched for a minute before deciding that watching someone eat was kind of creepy. He stood and turned to leave.

"Fourth reason."

He stopped and looked back at Silver, who was slowly stirring his cereal.

"The three of us know more about dealing with the nightmares and blackouts than anyone else. Key players and all that. So we should stick together."

Mephiles was silent as he considered that. It hadn't been brought up in their last discussion.

"And for Chaos' sake, stop leaving dishes in the sink!" Silver huffed. "It takes maybe a minute to-" His head snapped up at a quiet whoosh, only to realize it was a phasing-through-walls-to-escape-chores kind of whoosh. He shook his head and shot an exasperated half-smile at the empty space.

"Are we there yet?"

"Knock it off. What are you, three years old?"

"No, I'm eight days old."

Silver shoved Mephiles sideways. "You're channeling Sonic. Stop it before you end up on the list."

Mephiles' expression morphed into one of exaggerated scorn. "You would prank _me?_ Clearly you overestimate your abilities." Silver turned and walked away. Mephiles' eyes scrunched in a sort of smirk as he fell into step beside him. "What? You dare walk away? But I obviously am too important to be ignored. Just ignore the fact that I can only look at my feet or the sky."

"Telling you about the old you was such a bad idea."

"If you say so. At least I'm only doing a bad imitation instead of still _being_ him."

Silver stopped midstep. Mephiles kept walking a few steps before noticing. He turned just in time to see Silver almost fall over as physics reminded him that freezing that far through a step wasn't actually possible.

Mephiles snorted. "What's wrong now? Drop something? Wait, no, that can't be it. Quills don't drop things easily."

Silver rolled his eyes. "Knock it off. Your comment surprised me, that's all."

"My-" He paused to consider. His face took on a faint olive flush as he realized he'd said that aloud. His eyes darted around, searching for a change of topic. "Is it just me, or does that park look familiar?"

Silver looked over and nodded. "Not surprising. That's the park where I first ran into you." He motioned toward a nearby storefront. "Pretty sure you knocked their dumpster over while raging about… yeah, I'll just stop there," he said, noting Mephiles' narrowed eyes.

"Wise decision." His next statement was cut off by a loud crash and the shockwave that followed.

Silver was knocked over, but Mephiles only slid back a few steps. He raised an unimpressed eye ridge, then offered Silver a hand up. Silver took it without looking at him, too busy staring at the park. Mephiles finally turned to see what was going on.

The thing now sitting by the swings shared a passing similarity with some of Tails' projects. The main difference between it and them was the thing's ridiculous size. The robot had noodle-jointed arms ending in what looked like alligator clips. Otherwise, it was your typical stout metal-plated giant robot. It turned and tripped over the swings, which collapsed under its weight.

"I liked that swingset," Silver said, confusion taking any edge out of his voice.

A small egg-shaped pod floated down and hovered just above the robot. It sprouted several speakers circling its middle. "Attention, citizens! This is your last chance to surrender before your city is burned to the ground!"

Silver finally shook his shock off enough to be annoyed. "He's a day late."

Mephiles observed the logo liberally applied to the machines and made an educated guess. "Eggman?"

"Looks like."

"You said he's a day late."

"Yeah. His next attack was supposed to be yesterday."

Mephiles gave him a flat look. "Your main enemy gives you a schedule for his attacks."

Silver shrugged. "It's unofficial. Sometimes Egghead doesn't even show, so we get the day off. But he usually shows once a week unless he's plotting something major." He cringed as the biggest slide crunched under the robot's clumsy foot. "Let's talk later. Follow me."

Mephiles watched the thing for another moment before dashing after Silver. They stopped near a large tree. "What now?"

Silver kept his eyes on the robot. "Now stupidity." He cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, "Hey bolts-for-brains! You're off a day!"

The pod pivoted slightly. "What are – Shadow? Silver? This has nothing to do with you, so butt out!"

Mephiles stared flatly at it for a moment. He turned to a tree and banged his head against it three times, then remained in that position.

Silver stifled a snicker. "I'm sure they'll get it eventually."

"Before or after we all die of old age?" Mephiles grumbled into the tree.

The robot began emitting a low buzz. "I have no idea what you're talking about," the pod said, "but I do _not_ appreciate being ignored!"

Mephiles spun at Silver's startled exclamation and had barely enough time to react as the alligator clip arm phased through him and hit the tree, which promptly caught fire. He gingerly stepped out of the arm before allowing his form to solidify. "That was uncalled for," he snapped. He watched Silver examine the other arm, now surrounded by a teal glow, before flinging it back and burying it in the robot's body. He dusted his hands as the robot collapsed. "What he said."

The pod emitted several seconds of incomprehensible sputtering before giving any understandable statement. "Since when could you do _that?_ "

Silver looked at Mephiles. "Is he talking to you?"

"Yes, Silver, he is talking to me, unless your powers are less widely known than I've been led to believe." He endured Silver's glare and refocused on the pod. "Really, though, is it so hard to realize that I'm not Shadow? Our colors are pretty different, and it's too bright out to claim you can't see."

Several seconds of silence passed.

"Mephiles," the voice said with dawning comprehension. "So that's what happened."

Silver gave it a puzzled look, then shrugged and ignored it. "You do realize you're late, right? Your attack should have been yesterday."

Another pause, accompanied by some tapping and beeping noises. "Hm. That's embarrassing." An arm popped out of the pod's bottom and attached to the robot. "I'll be going now." The pod flew off over the rooftops with the robot in tow.

Silver watched, shaking his head. "That was worse than his usual stupidity. Keeping track of the date can't be that hard with that many computers around.

Mephiles shrugged. "Maybe he got caught up in a project. Now can we go already?"

Silver sighed and started back toward the road. "Come on."

Silver pushed the door open and stepped inside. "We're here!"

Mephiles followed him in and took a quick look around. The door opened onto a short hallway, ending in a large room. A kitchen counter could be seen on the right, while what sounded like game noises came from the left. A staircase to the second floor ran parallel to the hall. On the other side of the stairs was a room with just enough space for a table and chairs.

Shadow was sitting at the table. He glanced up at Silver's announcement, then turned back to his laptop. At the same time, the game noises paused, and Sonic's head poked out from the left area. "Took you long enough! It's only a couple miles between here and Tails' place."

Silver shrugged and headed down the hall. "Eggman forgot what day it was. We were delayed dealing with him."

Mephiles followed him, continuing to examine his surroundings. To the right was a decent sized kitchen. There was an island with some stools in the center and a counter circling the whole room on three sides. Several pictures and lists were stuck to the fridge with a strange assortment of letter, planet, and element magnets, with an occasional lego or magnetic clip. A large pot full of water sat in the sink. To the left was an entertainment center facing a couch that currently held a confused blue hedgehog. "How do you forget the date with that many computers around?"

"It takes a special kind of skill." The three turned to see Shadow standing in the doorway. "Eggman mastered it long ago. Some members of the group are similarly adept at it." He walked over to the TV and set his laptop on a shelf.

Sonic frowned. "Not gonna ask who you mean by that. What're you doing now?"

"Setting up the screen." He plugged in a cord and tapped a button. The TV screen switched to a map with several points marked. "There have been some strange energy signals appearing lately. Tails has been tracking them – don't ask how, it's technical – and is attempting to determine the cause. These are some of the strongest and/or most extended ones detected locally. If you have information to add, do so."

Mephiles pointed at the screen. "Isn't that where we just fought Eggman?"

Silver squinted. "Putting aside the fact that nobody can tell where you're pointing, I think you're right. And there's another one over Tails' place."

Sonic rested his chin in one hand. "Maybe it's something Meph's doing."

"The problem with that-" Mephiles began, but Shadow interrupted.

"Unlikely at best. He can't have been to _all_ of those places, and we should have noticed if he used his powers at range. But he may be involved with a few of them."

Mephiles scowled. "I could have said that."

"Perhaps," Shadow said with an indifferent shrug.

"Let's not argue about this," Silver said quickly. "Are we supposed to do anything about this, or just keep an eye out?"

Shadow tapped a few more keys and zoomed the display out, a few spots blinking in different colors. "Tails asked if anyone was free to help install some machines of his. They can't be transported at high speeds, so installing them alone would take a long time."

"So we'll all do a part and be done faster," Mephiles said.

Shadow glanced at him, then turned back to the screen. "We'll need partners to do parts of the setup, so Tails arranged a meetup tomorrow morning. Though I notice we have an odd number right now, so we'll see how the pairs go."

Sonic, who had been looking at the screen silently, finally spoke up. "Shadow, I found something weird."

Shadow raised a brow. "Really? What?"

"It looks like-" He hesitated, then frowned. "Let's go upstairs for a minute."

Shadow shrugged and disconnected the laptop.

Silver watched them go around the corner before flopping down on the couch and grabbing the remote. "They'll probably be a while, so-" He cut off, noticing that Mephiles hadn't moved. "Meph?"

"They really don't trust me," he murmured absentmindedly, gazing down the hall.

Silver sighed and leaned against the back of the couch. "I'm sure they'll come around eventually.

Mephiles' head snapped over to him. He blinked rapidly as he came back to the present. Then his expression abruptly went flat. "I doubt it. They have more reasons for distrust than trust."

"Maybe so, but most of those reasons are obsolete. You aren't a villain now."

Mephiles turned away. "Still, I doubt they'll ever really trust me."

As much as Mephiles tried to conceal it, Silver was all too familiar with that tone and stance. He remembered using them himself when he'd 'returned' to this time and doubted his chances of ever really being one of the group, especially with his history. With a past like Meph's, it had to seem even more hopeless.

Silver stood and approached Mephiles, slowly reaching to place a hand on his shoulder. The dark being looked up with a startled expression, but didn't move away. Silver took this as a good sign. "Don't worry about it too much. Even if they're wary now, they'll come around in time." He gave a reassuring smile. "If nothing else, I trust you. That's something, right?" Mephiles looked away with a vague noise. Silver frowned jokingly. "What, I'm not as good as them?"

Mephiles closed his eyes and sighed heavily. He took a hold of Silver's wrist and lifted his hand away. He paused briefly, then simply released his grip and letting Silver's arm swing back to his side before making eye contact again. "It isn't that your opinion is less important," he said, voice void of emotion. "But it's biased by your interactions with the old me."

Silver's mind froze for a moment. "I don't – Meph, that's just a theory. And even if it's right, my trust in you is based on the you of the present, not the you that tricked me."

"You said you trust me."

"Of course I do!"

"Then your opinion is biased."

"That isn't-" Mephiles turned away as Silver tried to speak. "You're being unreasonable." No response. "I know you know how immature the silent treatment is." Nothing. "Arg, fine!" Silver said with a frustrated groan. He turned back to the TV and began forcefully pressing buttons, rapidly cycling through the channels. "Have it your way. Don't let me be a decent person. It's whatever."

The sound of channels changing stopped at about the same time as his tirade. He glared at the screen, arms folded tightly. He wasn't going to look at Meph right then, no matter how much he wanted to. That would be like admitting defeat. (He'd never said he was any more mature.)

Because he was so busy not looking, he didn't see when Mephiles looked over at him, or the flash of guilt clouding his eyes, or the brief hesitation before he closed his eyes and forced himself to silently turn away.

Even with the TV playing, the room was coated in an oppressive silence.

Sonic chose that moment to pop back in. "Hey, we were thinking…" His grin faded as he caught the mood. "Is something wrong?"

He received two emphatic "No!"s without either party looking up.

Shadow joined Sonic and quickly took in the situation, particularly Silver's choice of entertainment. "So. Paid programming."

Silver continued staring at the screen. "Yep."

"Selling what appears to be eye shadow."

"Yep."

"Sparkly eye shadow. And possibly lipstick."

"Yep."

"Are you actually watching this?"

"Nope."

Shadow picked the remote up and turned the TV off. Silver continued staring at the blank screen.

Sonic blinked a few times. "Ooookay then. Anyway, me and Shads were thinking, since we don't have anything planned today, we could show Meph around the neighborhood." (Everyone ignored Shadow's grumbling about the nickname.)

Silver finally looked up, jumping to his feet and pasting on an overly large grin. "Great idea! I was thinking that earlier, but since someone else suggested it, maybe it's actually a good idea! Right?"

He turned to Mephiles, who quickly concealed his shock at Silver's outburst. "You have good ideas on your own just fine. And yes, that is a good idea."

"Great, let's go!" Silver turned and marched past everyone. Sonic glanced between him and Mephiles a few times, then shrugged and followed.

Mephiles moved to join them until Shadow stepped in his way, frowning. "What did you say? Silver hasn't been this upset since paintball."

Mephiles directed a level gaze at him. "One day someone has to explain paintball. But what makes you think I said something?"

"He seemed upset, while you do not."

Mephiles continued to hold his gaze. "I said nothing you would disagree with." He pushed past Shadow. "And I resent the implication that upsetting him wouldn't bother me."

Shadow watched him for a moment, then followed the rest.

Mephiles coughed and waved the dust away with one hand. He kept the other clamped over the lower half of his face, making his voice come out nasally. "How often does this happen?"

Silver glared at the pair of blurs now almost out of sight over the horizon. "Fifty-fifty chance every time they argue. They'll be back before dark, though. They've learned."

"So we're on our own for a bit."

Silver paused at Mephiles' level tone. He faced him and returned the neutral stare. "You'ure right. And if you want, we can go back. But I thjink you need to give yourself a little more credit for working to be someone others will trust. After all, it's why we're friends." He managed a small smile. "So, back to the tour?"

A tense silence followed. Mephiles' expression held no sign of his thoughts. He kept that neutral expression as he finally nodded. "Lead on."

Silver's grin was so big his face hurt, but he didn't care. He turned and pointed forward with a sweeping gesture. "Let's go!"

Mephiles stifled a snort and followed, allowing a small smile to shine in his eyes.

* * *

 **Parallels are fun. Just saying.  
**

 **And no, that isn't the end of Meph's problems with trust. That would be too easy. Sorry Meph. -n-**


	6. Partners

**Maybe I ought to make Sunday the official posting date. Not that it'll matter for a while, because all stories will be on hold for the duration of November due to NaNoWriMo. Sorry about that, but it'll be taking up all the free time I would otherwise use on Wake and other fanfic.**

 **In happier news, we've finally gotten through all the older stuff as of this chapter. Hereafter everything will have been written more recently, so hopefully events will make more sense, and trees will not be left on fire. (If you don't get it... reread last chapter. It's in the Eggman encounter.)**

 **And since I probably won't be able to post anything tomorrow, happy early Halloween!**

* * *

"That's where Shadow goes to buy books." Silver pointed out a quaint brick building. "Sometimes he'll pick one or two for me. He gave up on Sonic immediately. Actually, we should figure out what books you'd like so you can start your own collection."

"Keep in mind that I have no idea where to start, except that it won't be romance." He glanced over and stopped. "Silver?"

Silver didn't respond. His face had gone slack and his eyes unfocused, staring at nothing. Mephiles facepalmed. "Why do I have to deal with this?" he grumbled, looking around for something he could use.

"Are you two alright?"

Mephiles looked up and spotted the speaker in the bookshop doorway. "I'm fine, but he needs help. Do you have any old boxes, or something else large, light, and disposable?"

The stranger didn't so much as give him a quizzical look before going inside, returning a moment later with a battered cardboard box. "Will this work?"

"Yes." Mephiles took the box and eyed Silver carefully, doing some quick calculations. Too far he'd miss, wrong angle it might hit someone, too close _he_ might hit someone. He took a deep breath, readied himself to throw, yelled, "Hey, Silver, it's no use!" and let fly.

Silver jolted and flung his hands toward the box. With a crackling crunch, the box compacted into a tight cardboard wad surrounded by a teal glow. The glow faded and dropped it on the ground. Silver's eyes cleared. He dropped his arms to his sides, blinking like he'd just woken up. His eyes wandered until they focused on Mephiles, who somehow managed to smirk without a mouth. "Welcome back. Did you enjoy your trip?"

Silver's confusion changed to annoyance. "I'd say thanks for waking me, but I think you enjoyed it too much."

Mephiles' 'smirk' grew. "You're welcome."

The stranger finally spoke up again. "If you're both fine, I'll be getting back to work. Hopefully our next meeting is for sale of books." He gave a little wave and vanished back into the bookshop.

Silver noticed Mephiles' puzzled expression. "That was the shop owner. One or another of us comes by often enough for blackouts to be expected."

"I see. What were you remembering?"

Silver shuddered. "One of the moments we're denying ever happened."

Mephiles' face went blank. "Wait, right before this we were discussing-" Silver grimaced, and he wisely cut the thought short. "Alright. Anything else planned for this tour?"

"Nope, this was the last stop." Silver checked his com. "I'd suggest going somewhere for lunch, but we both know how that would go. Instead, I vote we get something to go and head back. Sound good?"

"As long as they have mint chip shakes."

"Did you expect anything different?"

"Pull that again, I dare you," Silver warned.

Mephiles' head snapped over him. The shock on his face quickly changed to innocence. "Trick? Whatever could you mean?"

Silver narrowed his eyes. "You know exactly what trick I mean. And if you leave me to clean up alone again…" He trailed off ominously.

Mephiles dropped the innocent look in favor of mischievous amusement. "What? You'll yell at me?"

"You won't get any dessert."

His expression went shocked again, this time with a trace of horror. (Silver marveled internally at how expressive he was for someone without a mouth.) "You wouldn't."

"Try me."

A stare-off commenced, neither one moving for a long moment. Mephiles finally turned away and began collecting empty containers.

"That's what I thought," Silver said with incorrigible smugness.

"Be quiet. Aren't you going to help?"

"Nah." Silver crossed his arms behind his head and leaned his chair back, eyes closed in relaxation. "You owe me for this morning."

"It was one dish, you lazy bundle of spines. And I will laugh a lot when that chair tips over."

"Won't. Telekinetics."

"Spoilsport."

"Is that what it's called when you don't want a concussion? Guess I learned my new thing for today."

"Congrats, you're one of the ten thousand." Mephiles dumped the last few containers into the trash and returned to his seat across from Silver. "What do you expect to happen tomorrow?"

Silver cracked one eye open partway. "What, the machines or – you mean partners? Not sure, really. I bet Tails'll take on an overseer role, if you're thinking about the odd numbers thing. And there's the usual Amy and Sonic shenanigans, but otherwise it's kind of a tossup. Why, worried about who you'll be stuck with?" Mephiles rolled his eyes and didn't answer. "Well good, cause you shouldn't be. I bet we'll be partners since we're close and all. Besides, I can work with just about anyone."

"You don't believe it certain that you'll be working with Blaze?"

Silver opened both eyes fully and looked carefully at Mephiles. He appeared merely curious, but that didn't mean this wasn't a loaded question. He dropped the chair back on all four legs. "Nope. We pair up a lot, but she can't always come. And like I said, I can work with anyone. I switch around a lot. So like I said, don't worry about it too much, cause we'll probably be partners."

"I know." Mephiles pushed his seat back and stood. "I'm going to check your game collection again."

"Want to try Colors multiplayer again?"

"…Not right now. I'd rather stick to single player games."

"Suit yourself."

…

Why can't I see anything?

… _!_

What was – is someone there?

 _Self._

What does that mean? Who are you?

 _You. Us. Pieces._

Oooookay. That's helpful.

 _Called. Meant for together._

Called? Together?

 _Parts attract. Want unity._

I'm not going to get a straight answer, am I?

 _You called. Loneliness. Hurt. Wrong._

That's… how-

 _Stop. Don't._

Don't what?

 _Link break. Stay._

I'm not going anywhere. What link?

Mephiles was roused from his slumber by the sound of hurried footsteps. It took him a long, groggy moment to register that it was way too late (or was it early?) for anyone to be up, except maybe Shadow. His curiosity pried him from the warmth of his blanket nest and led him to the door.

Nobody was on the landing, but one of the other doors was cracked open. He could hear someone talking, too softly to make out the words.

He silently approached the door and peered through the crack, poised to pull away in an instant.

Sonic and Silver sat at Shadow's sides, listening intently to his monotone dictation. Shadow gave no acknowledgement that they were there. His expressionless gaze was fixed on nothing, and his voice held no emotion. The words were still impossible to make out, but Mephiles didn't need them to realize Shadow had had a nightmare.

He decided not to make his presence known. It wouldn't do any good and might make things worse. There weren't any good reasons to do so. He simply slipped back to his room and closed the door without a sound.

After reestablishing himself in his nest, Mephiles finally took the time to consider his dream. It was too nonsensical to be one of the memory dreams, but too real to be a normal dream. He wasn't entirely sure he believed in visions, but that was the only idea he had. But there weren't any images. In fact, the more he thought about it, the more certain he was that there hadn't been any sensations he'd felt with his normal senses. There had been a presence, and a voice, but it spoke with concepts and emotions. And it couldn't seem to give a straight answer.

The one thing that he knew for sure was that it believed them to somehow be part of the same whole. What whole it was talking about, or why them being its parts was so important, he couldn't say – but he had a feeling he should.

He shook his head rapidly. Speculation wouldn't help much at this hour, and he'd need sleep for tomorrow.

It would be over an hour before he drifted off again.

Sonic and Silver looked up from their breakfasts as Shadow entered the kitchen. Sonic gave a wave and an attempted "Morning, Shads!" that would have gone better if he'd swallowed first. Silver gave him a disgusted look. He grabbed a napkin to wipe bits of egg off his face before throwing it at him.

"It is certainly morning," Shadow deadpanned. "Though with a start like that, it's as well you omitted the 'good.' Is Mephiles still sleeping?"

Sonic tossed the napkin in the trash. "Seems like. Time eating for time sleeping, I guess. Lucky."

Shadow raised a brow at Silver, who subtly shook his head. Sonic still caught the motions. "What's with the secret codes?"

"Nothing important," Shadow assured with a wave of his hand. "Besides, it's your fault we were out so late. I suggested we head back multiple times. You kept refusing."

"Faker, you should know by now that I never surrender."

"Beyond any boundaries of common sense. Now someone needs to wake Mephiles or we'll be late."

"On it." Silver dropped his dishes in the washer and headed upstairs.

Sonic gave them a puzzled look. "How would he make us late?"

"That's his business."

Sonic shrugged and continued shoveling food in his mouth.

Silver returned a minute later, dragging a sleepy Mephiles y the arm. He released his hold and turned to scowl at him. "Well?"

Mephiles blinked most of his sleepiness away and shot Sonic a sideways glance. Silver facepalmed. "He's got to know eventually, you know. It'll just be more trouble than it's worth."

"Not really. Impractical, perhaps."

"Whatever. Breakfast is reheated eggs, microwave bacon, and orange juice. Here."

Mephiles made a face and took the plate, then left the room. Sonic watched him with a puzzled expression, then shrugged it off.

The trio made small talk until Mephiles returned and put his empty dishes away. Shadow glanced at the stove clock. "We'll be early if we leave now."

Sonic hopped to his feet. "What's wrong with being early? Let's go!"

"You're really early," Tails observed, waving them inside.

Silver gestured at Sonic. "Not surprising with him around. Anything we can do to help while we wait?"

"Only if you've studied doctorate-level physics and chemistry. Anyone else should probably keep out for a while."

Sonic turned to the others with a mischievous grin. "In that case, how about a match?"

Silver eyed min warily. "What rule set?"

"Air match with random stun."

"…If you're that eager to lose, I'd be happy to hand you your rear."

Sonic's grin didn't fade in the slightest. "Meph? You in?"

Mephiles shrugged. "What he said."

"Then let's go!"

A minute later, Sonic finished setting parameters and hit start. Several spherical machines floated up and hovered at varying heights above the yard. He zipped to the top of his chosen tower and checked that Mephiles and Silver were already on theirs. "Everyone ready?"

"We've been ready," Mephiles said.

Silver snickered. "What he said. Obviously you're too slow for us."

"Oh, it is _on!_ "

A countdown signaled a momentary lapse in their banter. All three jumped at the same time, landing among the spheres.

Sonic's chosen foothold buzzed almost before he hit it, and he jumped to a new sphere with a startled yelp, feeling static electricity crackle in his fur. "That was too close," he said warily before jumping when that one buzzed.

"Having an issue there?" Mephiles asked from his perch. He sat with his face resting calmly in one hand. A slight ripple passed through him as he phased to avoid a shock, but he didn't react otherwise.

Silver hovered above another sphere. "I don't get why you decided on this setup. You're at a serious disadvantage."

Sonic steadied himself on yet another sphere before shooting him a cocky grin. "What's life without some challenge? Besides, I have a few tricks up my _sleeves!_ " He kicked a buzzing sphere at Mephiles as he finished speaking. Mephiles looked startled for a moment before failing to look like anything due to not being visible anymore. The sphere passed harmlessly thought he empty space, but Mephiles failed to reappear.

Sonic blinked, then hastily vacated his sphere before giving a sheepish grin. "Uh… oops?"

Silver snapped out of his surprised stupor and gave Sonic an unimpressed look. He began scanning the area. "Meph, you still here? Sonic, if he isn't, you're finding him."

"I'm here, I'm here. Give me a moment to pull myself together."

Some of the shadows on the ground snaked toward each other, forming a central point. The point rapidly darkened until the shadows bubbled up into a solid figure. A moment later, Mephiles opened his eyes and glared at Sonic. "Is you throwing things at me going to become a trend?"

Sonic shrugged. "Twice isn't really a trend."

"Three times."

"The pie was an accident. The water balloon you had coming. This was a fight, and that was fair game. By the way, you're out."

"So I noticed. Care to join me down here?"

"Nah, the air down here is quite- ack!" Sonic's cheery rebuttal was cut off as a glowing sphere hit him from behind. He managed to avoid faceplanting but couldn't avoid hitting the ground.

Silver smirked. "How's the air down there compare?"

"It seems fine to me. Perhaps cooler than up there, with all the hot air that's been blowing."

Everyone jumped a little at the unexpected input. They turned to see Blaze watching from the patio.

Silver dropped down with a wide grin. "Hi Blaze! Why are you here so early?"

"Allowing time for delays. You know how it is with dimensional and temporal warps."

Silver nodded understandingly. Mephiles looked confused. Sonic rolled his eyes with an air of 'been there, heard the explanation, still don't get it, still don't care.'

"So you dodged the turbulence?"

"Mostly. Slipped on a loophole and had to create a new vortex, but it was a minimal delay."

"What kind? Doesn't sound like the usual maneuvers worked."

Sonic noticed that Mephiles' eyes were glazing over. He elbowed him to get his attention. "Don't pay attention to that, I'm pretty sure most of that stuff is made up so they sound sciencey. Space-time travel is mostly about smashing through things."

Mephiles considered, then shook his head. "That just makes it more confusing."

"You probably have to do it yourself. And, uh, remember doing it."

He grimaced. "Maybe. I won't be trying it anytime soon."

"Fair enough. Want to run a course or something? They'll talk for hours about nothing once they get started."

Mephiles hesitated, glancing at the pair briefly, then shook his head. "I think I'll go see what's on TV for now."

"Suit yourself." Sonic ran up a tower and jumped into the bunch of bots they'd neglected to turn off. Mephiles watched him for a moment before turning to head inside.

"Hey, Meph!"

Mephiles turned slowly back to Silver. "What now?"

Silver blinked. "Just wanted to know where you were going. Is something wrong?"

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Nothing is wrong. I was just going inside. You looked busy."

"Not busy, just talking. You and Blaze haven't met yet, right?"

He sighed and walked over to them. "This better not take too long."

Blaze raised a questioning brow, but didn't comment on his attitude. "I've been told that your memories were reset. My condolences for the trouble that must have caused you. However, I'm pleased to hear you're on our side now." Her tone contained a questioning note.

Mephiles stiffened minutely. "I certainly think so. But I'll understand if you don't believe it."

She shook her head. "I believe it. I merely wanted to hear it from you. That aside… do your abilities always cause trouble, or was that a fluke?"

"Depends," Silver said. "Whose definition of trouble?"

Blaze looked at Silver, who gave her a flat look, then at Mephiles, who gave her an innocent look. "…Allow me to rephrase. Can you typically control your abilities?"

Mephiles dropped the exaggerated innocence and shrugged. "Usually. Don't surprise me and nothing will happen."

"I see."

There was a long, awkward silence when none of them had more to say. Mephiles watched idly as Sonic ran among the bots. Silver shifted uncomfortably, grasping for something to say. Blaze seemed content with gazing off into the distance.

After a moment, Silver couldn't handle the oppressive silence anymore. "So what do-"

"Um, gusy?" Tails called, poking his head trhough a window. "Everyone's here, so unless someone objects, we can start now."

Sonic bounced down and deactivated the bots. He nturned and headed inside, Blaze close behind.

Silver hung back a little to speak softly to Mephiles. "Hey, are you-?"

"We should go too," he interrupted, quickly following the others, gaze locked firmly ahead.

Silver stared for a moment, stunned. Then he shook his head and hurried to catch up. He could look into his friend's strange behavior later.


	7. Truth and Belief

**I'd like to apologize for taking so long with this update. Rather than offer excuses for the delay, I'll just say thank you to anyone still with this. Updates may be sporadic for a while, real life demanding attention and such, but I'll aim for my original once a week. With all that said, please enjoy!**

* * *

Everyone gathered in the main room, casting curious looks at the contraptions scattered across the tables. Silver took note of those assembled, surprised at just how many of them had shown up. A few others had arrived while they were outside, including Rouge. The bat spotted them and made a beeline in their direction.

"Well, well," she said, looking Mephiles over. "Seems a certain Ultimate Lifeform may have some competition in the looks department, hmm?" She looked over at the being in question, who pointedly pretended not to hear.

Mephiles blinked. "O…kay?"

"Just ignore her," Silver suggested quietly.

The dark being looked at him, then turned away before nodding slightly. Silver tried not to be too bothered by it. Rouge eyed them both curiously but didn't get to speak before Tails called out.

"Alright, everyone. Anyone need a recap on what we're doing? No? Okay, great." He waved a stack of papers so everyone could see. "Steps for setting up the sensors are written on these, each pair gets one. Pairs are Sonic and Knuckles, Rouge and Shadow, Amy and Blaze, Silver and Mephiles, and me back here in case there's a problem." There was some complaining, especially from Amy, but nobody was too vocal about their displeasure. Mephiles tensed minutely but didn't speak up. "Each pair take a box and a paper. Locations are listed on the page. Again, I'll be here if there's a problem, so don't try to wing it. _Please_."

Mephiles stepped forward to get one of the sheets, so Silver waited beside an unclaimed box. The dark being joined him and offered the paper. Silver frowned as he scanned it. "Meph, can you wait here for a moment?"

Mephiles shrugged and nodded. Silver ducked into the lab where Tails had just vanished. "Hey, Tails? All our locations are in Soleanna."

Tails looked up from the screen he'd been examining. "All your – oh." He grimaced. "Sorry. I put close locations together, but I hadn't considered that you two might get that one. The others already left, right? Maybe I should call and-"

"It's fine," Mephiles said. "And you should know that I can hear you."

Tails and Silver exchanged sheepish looks before rejoining him. "Sorry," Silver said. "I just… didn't want to worry you." _You seem to be having a bad enough day already,_ he thought but didn't say.

Mephiles gave him a look, then shrugged. "It's fine. Let's just get this over with."

Silver nodded and lifted the box with his powers before following him out the door.

"Can you grab me that plate?"

Mephiles picked up the piece in question and tossed it in Silver's general direction. It stopped before hitting the ground and hovered in place, wreathed in turquoise light. Silver paused his work to frown at Mephiles. "Okay, this is getting ridiculous. What is your problem?"

Mephiles glanced at him, then crossed his arms and turned away.

"Don't give me that. You're acting weird, and I want to know why." Silver set the device down and fixed him with a serious look, arms likewise folded.

The dark being huffed. "Maybe I just want to be left alone."

Silver stared at him in astonishment. "Seriously? You?"

He finally made eye contact, but only to glare. "Did it not occur to you that I don't like being around all these strangers constantly? I barely know any of you!"

Silver's expression softened. "I hadn't thought about it like that, but you're right. Sorry."

"Then you have your answer."

"Nope. I want to know what else is wrong."

Mephiles grimaced and grumbled something under his breath.

"What?"

He glared again. "I said it's none of your business! Let's just get this finished so we can go home." The dark being picked up one of the partial contraptions and resumed working.

Silver kept glancing at him while they worked, but he refrained from saying anything, which was more than Mephiles had hoped.

Once they'd finished the setup, Silver retrieved the box and checked their next destination. "Next up… okay, follow me, I think I remember this next location."

"Like you remembered this one?"

"Hey, I found it eventually!" Silver objected. It was more a token protest than anything. He was just relieved to hear Mephiles cracking jokes rather than moping at some unknown problem.

"One more to go," Silver said, checking the paper again. Not that he needed to; this location was one that he remembered distinctly and brought back bad memories. Chaos knew how Mephiles would react to the visit.

"It's about time," Mephiles said, snapping Silver out of his thoughts.

It took him a moment to recall what Mephiles was responding to, at which point he blinked. "Oh?"

A low growl answered before Mephiles could. He flushed a bit and folded his arms huffily. "So maybe it's past lunchtime, alright?"

Silver carefully suppressed his amusement. Mephiles was acting more or less normal again, and he was not going to ruin that with poorly timed snickers. "We can get lunch once we're done."

"You mean at the house, right?"

"Works for me. But first we have to set up the last sensor."

Mephiles sighed. "Alright. Where to next?"

Silver checked one last time, vainly hoping that it had somehow changed in the last minute, or maybe that he'd misread it all dozen or so times he'd checked already. Sadly, neither had happened. "Outside Aquatic Base."

"I don't get it," Mephiles said as they worked. "What's so bad about this place?"

Silver flinched, fighting back memories of a dimly lit laboratory, a bright explosion, a small girl… He shook his head to clear it. "Same as all these places. Bad memories. I'm just surprised you aren't getting flashbacks." He couldn't help but feel slightly envious, even knowing how unreasonable the feeling was.

Mephiles blinked. "I have a history here?"

Another memory flickered in Silver's mind – chasing a living flame down one hall as his companion followed liquid shadows down another. "You could say that."

Mephiles thought for a moment, then shrugged and returned to his work. "It can't be that important if I completely forgot it."

Silver decided not to argue. It wasn't like they knew how to undo whatever caused those memories to vanish so completely. And maybe… maybe it was for the best if Mephiles didn't recover them. It can't have been anything other than traumatic.

They worked in silence for a while. Silver finally set the last part in place, dusting his hands off and turning to Mephiles. "I'm done. How's your part going?" He received no answer. "Meph?"

Still Mephiles was silent, staring sightlessly in the general direction of the base. Silver realized something must have finally triggered a memory. Meaning he had to deal with the flashback.

He sighed and approached with due caution, not wanting to cause another disappearance. Once was bad enough. Mephiles didn't react, so he was apparently successful.

Silver paused beside him, not quite sure what would be the best course to take. "Mephiles-"

He jerked his head around at the sound of his name, staring at Silver with unnerving intensity. There was something almost reptilian about that stare. Silver had to fight back a nervous giggle as he realized he could almost see cartoon flames burning in Mephiles' eyes. Something told him now was not the time for laughter. "Um-"

"This isn't real," he said, voice empty of all that emotion his face currently held. Suddenly he was right in Silver's face, gripping his shoulders in an unyielding hold. "They don't know what they're doing, keeping things this way. They can't see the truth. Only the real truth can-!"

A dull thud echoed through the clearing. Mephiles froze for an instant before collapsing on Silver, who squeaked and just barely caught him. The telekinetic lowered him to the ground before pulling out his com unit and sending a call.

Tail's voice crackled through the air. "Hi Silver. Problem?"

Silver glanced at the unconscious form by his feet. "You could say that. Is anyone back yet? I'm not sure I can safely carry Meph and the box at the same time."

There was a beat of silence. "What happened?"

"I… may have hit him in the head with a rock."

Another beat of silence, then a long-suffering sigh. "I'm not gonna ask. I'll see if anyone's free."

"Thanks." Silver ended the call and settled in to wait. This could take a while.

Barely five minutes later, a whoosh and a dark blur signaled Shadow's arrival. He glanced around briefly before approaching. "Sonic offered to come, but he wasn't finished working," he said with a hint of smugness.

Silver nodded and gestured at the sensing apparatus. "We, um, got interrupted before finishing with this one."

Shadow scanned the pieces again and picked one up. They began working without further conversation.

They soon got the sensor operational and packed up the rest of the gear. Shadow hefted Mephiles over his shoulder and turned to Silver. "I'll take him to the lab."

"Meet you there."

He nodded and vanished in a dark blur. Silver waited for the dust to settle before lifting the box and following after.

Mephiles was confused. The last thing he remembered was working on the sensor with Silver. So why was he lying in bed? It wasn't even his bed.

Upon opening his eyes and looking around, he concluded that he was in Tails' guest bedroom. Something must have happened in the underwater base place. If only he could remember what.

He got up and went downstairs, following the sound of voices into the lab. Rouge and Shadow were watching Tails point at various screens. They looked up as he entered.

"Glad you're awake," Tails said. "How are you feeling?"

"Mostly fine. My head hurts."

Shadow snorted.

"Oh, shut up," Silver huffed from behind Mephiles. The dark being glanced back, surprised to realize there was someone else in the room. He observed Silver's embarrassed irritation and decided not to ask.

Tails shot Shadow a look, then turned to Mephiles with a smile. "Glad to hear that. Not about your head, the other part." Then his expression turned serious. "Do you remember what happened before you lost consciousness?"

He shrugged. "I remember doing setup. Why, what happened?"

The others exchanged uneasy glances. Mephiles found himself mirroring the sentiment. Tails turned to Silver. "Maybe you should tell him."

"Not much to tell," Silver said with only a little hesitation. "You started acting weird and talking about something not being real. It was like you were hypnotized."

"And we don't know what caused it," Shadow said. "It wasn't anything obvious."

Silence fell as that processed. After a moment, Silver broke it. "Anyone else want some lunch?" He shrugged at the perplexed looks he got. "What? I'm hungry. Tails, can I borrow the kitchen?"

"Uh, sure. Just make something for me too."

"I'll make something for everyone. Meph?"

Mephiles rolled his eyes and followed Silver toward the kitchen. "One of these days I'll make you find a different helper."

"But not today, obviously."

Rouge waited until they'd left before smirking. "I see Silver's got him well trained."

Shadow snorted even as he rolled his eyes. "Very funny. We should return our attention to important matters."

"All right, no need to get so excited."

He didn't respond, but in truth, he was excited (at least relatively speaking). There was a chance they might finally find answers to some of their newfound questions.


	8. Press Undo

**Hey, I'm alive! And still writing for this, in case you were wondering. Don't worry, I intend to finish any work that I post online or I wouldn't post it in the first place.**

 **That said, I rolled a die to choose my camp nano project, and guess what it landed on. This work. So have this mess I had mostly typed a few days ago, and know that you can look forward to a higher chance of updates in the future. (Probably not during the month though, since I don't usually edit during nano events.)**

 **And with that, enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

A blue blur burst through the door and resolved itself in the form of a grinning hedgehog. "Hey guys, what's- oh, sorry, Silver."

Silver just managed to catch the plates he'd dropped and levitated them back into his hands. "It's fine. What took you so long?"

Sonic rolled his eyes and shot a look of exaggerated irritation at the door as it opened again. "Well _someone_ didn't want to go too fast."

"Caution is not a bad thing," Knuckles retorted, shifting his grip on the box and closing the door with his free hand. "Especially not when you broke your only spare parts."

Sonic cheerfully ignored him. "Is the food for us?"

"It's for everyone. Sandwiches are ready now, soup is… in progress." He set the plates on the table and waved at them. "Help yourself."

Silver returned to the kitchen as Sonic did so. "You know," he said through a mouthful of sandwich, "I don't see Meph. Wonder where he got to."

Knuckles scowled. " _I_ don't know why we give him so much freedom. We're practically _begging_ him to stab us in the back."

Amy and Blaze entered just in time to hear the end of that. Blaze frowned. "I assume you mean Mephiles? He seems trustworthy, from what I've seen, though a certain degree of caution is advisable considering the situation."

"A certain-! We're letting him act like one of us! And you _know_ who he was, so how can you be so casual about this?!"

"He has a point," Mephiles said, holding back a snicker when they all jumped and whirled. "Don't mind me. I heard my name and wanted to see what was happening."

He glanced back at a beeping from the kitchen, leaving to check it just as Silver came out with another plate of sandwiches. He glanced around and sighed. "You guys are louder than you seem to think." He set the plate down on the table and turned toward the lab. "Sandwiches are done!"

A moment later, Tails, Shadow, and Rouge came in, still discussing something technical-sounding. Shadow glanced around and frowned. "Where's Mephiles?"

Silver nodded toward the kitchen. "Making soup."

"…What kind?"

"Cream of mushroom."

He held Silver's gaze for a moment longer, then facepalmed. "Of course. Why am I not surprised."

Sonic blinked. "Um. Am I missing something?"

"No, you're fine," Silver said. "Now I'll be right back, he'll need a hand with the bowls."

Shadow followed him to the kitchen without a word. The others exchanged curious or unsettled glances as they found seats.

A minute later they returned with Mephiles, each holding two bowls and Silver levitating the rest. They passed the bowls out to their confused friends.

Sonic was the first to speak, pointing at his bowl of bright blue liquid. "What kind of mushrooms did you use?"

Tails almost choked on a spoonful of orange soup. He wiped his mouth and grinned at Sonic. "Meph likes colors."

"As it were," Shadow said dryly, stirring his own black soup. "Though I prefer this over red."

"Burned over spicy, huh?" Sonic joked, glancing over to see how Mephiles was taking their teasing. He was confused to see that neither he nor Silver were paying attention. They were locked in a stubborn staring contest, holding some kind of silent argument. Then he realized that Mephiles hadn't gotten any food for himself.

He thought back to Meph's strange behavior that morning, then to a few other incidents, and things clicked. Now how to help discreetly…

Mephiles gave a startled yelp when he was suddenly yanked from his seat and into the kitchen, barely catching something that sounded like "HeyMephgotsomethingIneedtoaskrealquick!"

Everyone else sat in stunned silence for a second before someone spoke. "What just happened?"

As the conversation started back up, Silver and Tails exchanged a look. Shadow glanced at the door, expression unreadable, before returning to his food in silence.

Once in the kitchen, Sonic released Mephiles' arm and spun to face him. "When's the last time you ate?"

Mephiles rubbed his arm gingerly, scowling. "Why does it matter?"

"Because based on the staring contest between you and Silver, I'm guessing you plan on skipping lunch."

He crossed his arms and turned away. "I still don't see why it matters."

"That's easy. It matters because if you don't eat enough, you'll get hungry, being hungry makes you feel bad, and feeling bad sucks." He waited, then continued when Mephiles only stared at him. "Look, just eat a little, alright?"

Mephiles hesitated, glancing sideways toward the door. "I'd… rather not."

Sonic suppressed a sigh. A short moment and one blur later, a bowl of blue-gray soup was shoved into Mephiles' hands. Sonic turned to face the doorway. "Eat it. I'll wait."

Mephiles looked between him and the bowl several times before reluctantly obeying. He neglected the spoon in favor of gulping it down as fast as possible. When he finished, he lowered the bowl and tapped Sonic's shoulder. "Done."

The bowl was whisked out of his hands to be washed, dried, and put away before Mephiles had time to register its absence. Sonic popped up in front of him with a wide grin. "Ready to go back inside?"

Mephiles gave him a flat look. "We are inside."

The speedster rolled his eyes and took his arm again. "You know what I meant. Come on."

He shook the arm off and followed under his own power.

Conversation paused again as they returned. "What was that about?" Silver asked.

Sonic plopped into his chair and returned to his food. "Secret."

Mephiles took his seat, and Silver turned a burning look his way. The only response he received was a short, "Eat your soup."

Strangely, that comment caught a fair bit of attention. Silver blinked a bit before relaxing visibly. Shadow glanced over briefly while continuing to eat. Tails froze for an instant, then continued eating as though nothing happened. Each of these reactions happened lightning fast – but that wasn't fast enough to escape Sonic's notice. The speedster raised a brow, but decided to ask later. Food was much more important.

Sonic didn't look up from his game when the door opened. "Hey Silv."

"How'd you do that?"

He looked over as Silver took a seat beside him. "A and X buttons mashing?"

Silver coughed in a failed attempt to not laugh. "Eh… No, not the game. I meant…" He paused, then nodded at the door. "How did you get him to eat something?"

Sonic paused the game to stare at him. "How'd you know?"

"He actually mentioned food. If he was still avoiding eating, he wouldn't do that. I think it's a variant on the 'I can't see it, it can't see me' logic."

"That's… something."

"It really is. So." Silver clasped his hands at chest height and stared at him earnestly. "Teach me your ways, o great one."

It took a while before Sonic stopped laughing long enough to answer. "I didn't do much, really. Just pointed out that he'd feel bad and dyed a bowl of soup. Plus not watching him eat, but. Uh. Why are you giving me that look?" He eyed Silver's sparkly delight with a hint of apprehension.

Silver's grin didn't fade one bit at his comment. "You managed to tell him you were worried about him, but you didn't just say it. Meaning he might actually believe it."

"Actions louder than words, you mean?"

"Yep." Silver sighed and settled deeper into the couch. "Now we have to wait for Tails to analyze his shiny new data."

Sonic scowled at the TV screen. "It better not take too long. Patience isn't one of my strengths."

Silver gave him a flat look. "I noticed."

He offered an unabashed smile. "Speed's my thing and I can't deny it. Say, where's Meph now?"

"Getting a checkup."

"Seriously? I know his energy changes fast, but didn't he just get one yesterday?"

Silver focused intently on the pause screen. "Tails wanted to check in light of… recent events."

Sonic blinked, but took the hint and changed topics. "We haven't hung out much as a group yet, right?"

Silver eyed him warily. "We who?"

"You, me, Meph, Shadow. Major player crew. Though, really, for any group with Mephiles it's still true."

"Well, yeah. Your point?"

He beamed. "What if we did a group activity?"

Silver gave him a dubious look. "With his control of his powers?"

"What makes you think he'll need his powers?"

"Um, because I know what kind of group activities you plan. Obviously."

Sonic shrugged. "Fair enough. But I was thinking of some pretty basic exploration. There's an emerald signal in a remote jungle-"

"And how is he supposed to get there?"

That only made him pause for a bare second. "Shadow can Chaos Control us or I'll fly the Tornado."

Silver sighed. "You aren't dropping this, are you?"

"Nope!" Sonic's grin was far too pleased.

"…Let's just see what Mephiles says."

"I can't believe I agreed to this," Mephiles grumbled.

The wind carried his words, low as they were, back to Silver. The telekinetic suppressed a grin and flew up beside him. "This isn't the worst thing Sonic's gotten someone to agree to. He's just that convincing."

Mephiles grumbled inaudibly. He was sitting in the back seat of the Tornado as they soared much too far above the ground. He hadn't felt like trying anything with 'chaos' in the name without a carefully controlled environment, especially with his present experience with chaos energy. And since he'd said yes to this expedition, that left the plane.

Sonic checked the instrument panel. "Landing now. Hang on, Shadow!"

Shadow gave him an unimpressed glare and didn't adjust his position on the plane's wing.

They landed not long after that. Mephiles didn't even wait for them to stop completely, phasing out of the metal death trap almost before the wheels touched the ground. He steadied himself as Silver landed beside him.

"You okay?" he asked with a worried look.

"I'm fine." Seeing Silver's doubt, he amended, "Or I will be."

Thus appeased, Silver watched the others disembark and join them. "We're here," Sonic announced with a snicker, glancing at Mephiles. He looked fine, so Sonic allowed himself to turn to more important matters. "Let's go find the emerald!" He pointed into the jungle and charged ahead. The others exchanged good-natured eyerolls before following.

Finding the gem was made easier by Silver having remembered to grab the emerald tracker. Sonic hadn't thought of it, Shadow didn't care, and Mephiles hadn't known the thing existed. But the search was made undeniably faster with the device in hand. Less than an hour later, they were back by the plane with a shiny purple gem.

Sonic was torn between being pleased they finished so fast and disappointed to be going back so soon. He pushed those thoughts aside when he noticed Meph's expression. Coming to the obvious conclusion, he patted him on the shoulder. "Don't sweat it! You can ask Shads to chaos control you back if you don't want to fly. He's done it in way worse situations than this."

Mephiles jumped a little at the unexpected contact, then frowned slightly. He shook his head. "No, it's fine."

"You sure? Cause it's no trouble really. Just ignore it if he complains." Shadow gave him a dirty look, but didn't say anything. "See? That's just how he is."

The dark being continued to shake his head. "No, no, that's not it. I just…" He looked at the purple gem and grimaced. "Bad memories."

The others exchanged confused looks. "What do you mean?" Silver asked.

Mephiles hesitated, then waved at the emerald. "That's the one I use when I… you know." When they continued to look confused, he reluctantly added, "When I… freed Iblis."

Sonic's eyes widened as he snapped his fingers. "Oh yeah! Though, I'd kind of forgotten until you brought it up." He paused. "Wait. How did you remember that?"

"…Excuse me?"

He gestured aimlessly. "That – didn't you forget everything about Iblis and Solaris?"

Mephiles blinked.

"He's right," Silver said. "We couldn't trigger any of those memories, even though we tried a lot of trigger words."

Mephiles blinked.

Shadow frowned. "Even so, we don't know much about his… condition. It could be that we triggered a memory without realizing it. And with that in mind…" He narrowed his eyes at the dark being, whose eyes had glazed over in all too familiar fashion. "Mephiles."

He jolted, giving Shadow a wide-eyed stare that quickly settled into a sneer. "Yes, Shadow?" he said, voice coated in sugary sweetness.

He chuckled darkly at their expressions. "Oh, if only you could see yourselves. You seem confused. What, did you forget who I am?"

Sonic and Shadow exchanged an apprehensive look, then realized they were missing someone.

"Hey, Meph!"

Mephiles whipped around to snarl the speaker. "Do not call me-" He was cut off by a box landing on his head. There was a long moment of silence as Mephiles stood frozen and Sonic and Shadow stared at Silver with matching shocked expressions.

The moment was broken when Mephiles shoved the box off his head, spluttering furiously and swiping bits of foam away. He paused to scowl at them once the worst of it was gone. "What was that for?"

Silver shrugged. "I didn't feel like dealing with that."

Mephiles blinked. "Then something happened?"

"Flashback," Shadow said, cutting off Silver's response. "Though the method of awakening is suboptimal."

"Well, turnabout is fair play," Silver said, giving Shadow a concealed look for that deception. Shadow didn't acknowledge it.

"I'd like to know the story behind that," Sonic said, "but we should get going."

They started for the plane, but Silver stopped Shadow with an invisible tap on the shoulder.

Shadow stopped and waited for Silver to approach, continuing to face forward. "It wasn't a lie."

Silver scowled. "Yeah right. That wasn't-"

"It was." Shadow turned to face him. Silver was shocked to see traces of actual worry on his face. "Or… It was if I'm correct. I hope I'm not." He turned and walked away without another word, leaving Silver to ponder what that meant.

Tails was waiting outside when they returned. "Finally! I need to show you something." He dashed inside, tails propelling him forward. The others exchanged glances and hurried after him.

They gathered around the screen in the main lab. Tails tapped a few keys and brought up a map. "See those dots? There was another surge not too long ago, and it was strongest in those areas."

"Any progress finding the cause?" Shadow asked without turning from the screen.

Tails frowned. "Not yet. But I'm hoping, with the sensors in place, we might be able to find out more. Hopefully before something else happens."

Mephiles pointed at one dot. "Like that?"

"Sorry, what?"

"That's the jungle we just visited," Sonic said. "Do you think it could be related to the emeralds?"

"No way," Silver said. "There's too many points." He glanced at Shadow, still examining the screen. "But it might be having some effect."

Shadow frowned, then sighed and inclined his head. "True. It may be what caused the odd flashback that Mephiles had."

Mephiles gave him a puzzled look. "I didn't think there was anything strange about it."

Silver winced. "Yeah… there actually was? I mean, your memory is skewed like it would be. Please stop looking at me like that."

Mephiles crossed his arms, eyes narrowed. "Not until you explain why you didn't tell me."

"Because I told him not to." Shadow's voice was toneless, a simple statement of fact. He remained neutral when Mephiles' glare was turned his way. "I believed it to be the best course of action. There was no purpose in you knowing."

"Maybe I should decide that."

"Oh, come on," Sonic said. "Just explain already."

Shadow glared at him. "I was about to. From what I saw, he regressed to his original personality."

There was a moment of total stillness.

Mephiles tilted his head. "Hm. That's odd."

* * *

 **Getting into the major theme of this work. Comments would be greatly appreciated!**


	9. Stand in Place (don't look too hard)

**I return with more words! Lots of them. Very messy though, so I make no promises regarding update speed aside from the fact that it will be faster than the last few. Also, chapter length may vary.**

 **That said, let me know if there's anything you want to see in this world. I make no promises, but I enjoy writing side ficlets once in a while. You may see a few of those cropping up in the future.**

 **And with that, enjoy the story!**

* * *

It didn't take long for Shadow to explain his conclusion. Whatever happened had temporarily returned Mephiles to his mindset during the adventure. Silver throwing the box had brought him back, much like a typical blackout flashback. The only real difference was his external reaction.

Tails was first to speak when Shadow finished. "But what made him act like that? None of you ever did that, even during the worst blackouts."

Sonic looked at Mephiles. "Meph had the most change, right? Silv was pretty different from me and Shads. Maybe that's all it is."

Mephiles picked up a stray crystal and examined it. "Nope. What's this?"

Tails blinked. "Um. Not sure. It looks like a leftover from – or, wait. What you mean nope?"

"I mean that's not it." He held the crystal up to a light and squinted one eye shut. "this makes some nice color patterns. Maybe I should take up rock collecting."

Shadow scowled. "If you have an idea, share it."

Mephiles turned to look at him. "I don't see why I should. After all, there's no purpose in you knowing."

Shadow slammed him against the wall, a hand around his neck. "Do you think this is funny?!"

Mephiles met his fury with impenetrable calm. "No. I think it's no different from what you did. At least I didn't get violent."

They both blinked as a turquoise glow enveloped and separated them. "Enough," Silver said, waving to place them on the floor with a good distance between them. "Fighting won't help us figure this out."

Shadow continued to glare at Mephiles. As soon as the glow vanished, he turned and left. Sonic glanced around the room before hurrying after.

Silver folded his arms and scowled. "What's with you, Meph? It's not like you to pick a fight like this."

Mephiles folded his arms likewise, but looked away. "As far as you know," he muttered.

"Huh?"

"Nothing." He closed one eye and looked at the wall over his shoulder. "I'll be outside when you finish." He melted away before they could respond.

Tails stared blankly at the vacant spot. "What was that?"

Silver shook his head. "I have no idea. He's been acting weird all day." After a moment's hesitation, he added, "We should see what we can come up with. Maybe he'll be willing to help later."

As they returned to the board, Mephiles settled himself on one of the towers outside. He already made sure Sonic and Shadow had left, so he was fairly confident of a few minutes' peace.

Once settled, he raised his hand, examining the crystal still clutched in it. He been joking about the rock collection, but it actually wasn't a bad idea. After all, he didn't have much of an identity, so might as well start somewhere.

He clinched his hand into a face around the stone as the thought reminded him of why he'd sought solitude. The suggestions and comments were innocent enough, but they reminded him that he had no idea who he really was. And they didn't either, even if they thought they did. Besides… he didn't particularly want to be the version of himself that they were familiar with. And if he couldn't recall what had happened during that episode…

His little pity party was interrupted when Sonic came through the back door, dragging a clearly reluctant Shadow behind him. Shadow pulled his arm free and growled something at Sonic. At Sonic's murmured response, he glanced around the yard until his eyes settled on Mephiles. Something seemed to twist in his expression. He aimed one last glare at Sonic (which only earned him a grin and a thumbs up) before taking a running leap and landing at Mephiles' side.

There was an awkward pause as neither of them spoke. Mephiles kept his eyes pointedly forward, ignoring Shadow's gaze boring holes into him. He wasn't going to be the one to break the silence. Shadow would have to explain himself first.

After a few minutes, he finally did. "You believe I should have informed you of the incident."

Mephiles gave him a disbelieving sideways glance. "…Yes?"

Shadow nodded curtly. "Very well. I won't make that mistake again."

There was another long silence. Mephiles slowly raised his head to stare at Shadow. "Seriously?"

"Did you expect something else?"

"Actually… you know what, never mind. We should return inside." He jumped down and headed inside without another word.

Sonic watched him pass before approaching the tower. He noticed the thoughtful frown on Shadow's face as he hit the ground. "Not exactly what I had in mind when I said you should apologize, but looks like it worked. Nice job."

"Perhaps," Shadow murmured, still frowning at nothing. He closed his eyes briefly, then opened them and walked inside. Sonic blinked but shrugged off the strange behavior and followed him.

* * *

Tails examined the machine in front of him, then hopped up the stepladder to check a paper and retrieve a tool. Mephiles glanced up at the motion, then returned to his idle study of a crystal chip. It was smaller than the one from earlier, but just as satisfying to look at.

"You can keep that."

He almost fell off the table. Steadying himself, he looked to see Tails digging in his contraption. The fox's face suddenly lit up, and he pulled a strange, gear-like object out. "A-ha! That's what wasn't- ahem." He set the piece on a suspended shelf and clambered down again. "Sorry, but I've been trying to figure that out for days. Any case, I don't need those crystals. They don't have the right frequency, so I had to get new ones."

"Oh. Thanks."

"Totally unrelated, but could you not sit on the tables? There are chairs if you need one."

Mephiles looked at him for a moment, then rolled his eyes and slid off. "Peh. Bribery."

Tails beamed. "It worked, didn't it?" His expression turned more serious. "Mephiles, you know you can tell us if something's wrong, right?"

Mephiles was suddenly entranced by the crystals again.

Tails resisted a sigh and glanced at the door. The others had left to various tasks and most likely wouldn't be back that day. Meph had opted to stay and make his own way home when he was ready. But Tails was at a loss as to why. He'd spent the last few hours sitting and doing nothing much, not really responding to questions or anything else.

Mephiles sighed and straightened halfway. "Do you believe I'm the real Mephiles?"

Tails paused briefly before answering. He hadn't expected that question. "Uh, yeah? Unless you're secretly robot double or something. I hear it's happened."

"…Right. That wasn't exactly what I meant. I…" he paused to consider his words. "If I regress, is that the real me? Or is the me right now real?"

Tails frowned. "Interesting question. I think they're both real, but this is the real you right now. That was the real you in the past. Why do you ask?"

He rolled the crystal around in his hands. "I think the regression is caused by memories."

"…Come again?"

Mephiles sighed and met his eyes. "Memories make a lot of someone's personality. So if I changed that much, it might mean my memory is being affected."

Tails nodded slowly. "Interesting theory. And if it's memories… Maybe something's suppressing the memories from this week, so you don't think of us as friends."

"Could be." He didn't quite conceal the note of doubt in his tone, but Tails didn't seem to notice, too busy scurrying over to the main console and pulling the display onto the screen.

"We still don't know what's causing it," Tails said, "but I'm looking to see if I can link the regressions to the energy surges. If they're connected, we're that much closer to solving both mysteries. Or we'll be down one possibility. That could happen too."

Mephiles watched him work with mild amusement. After a minute, he glanced at the time, his expression falling. "I suppose I should head back soon."

Tails paused his monologue, studying Mephiles with a slight frown. He leaned down to pull something out from under the console. "I just remembered I've been meaning to give you this." He held out a com unit, like the ones the others wore but colored Mephiles' shade of blue-green. "You've probably seen some of us using the com units, though others prefer to keep them off. It'll help keep in touch if you want to do stuff on your own. But it might take awhile to show you how it works. Is that OK?"

Mephiles relaxed almost invisibly. "That's fine. Thank you."

"Sure thing!"

* * *

It was getting late when Mephiles solidified in the hallway. He heard the TV running and briefly debated the chances of reaching his room before being noticed.

"Oh, hey, Meph."

So much for that idea. He gazed impassively at the head poking over the couch. "Hello, Silver."

Silver leaned out of sight for a moment and the TV sounds stopped. He stepped around the couch to face Mephiles with a faintly uneasy smile. "You were out for a while. Everything okay?"

He shrugged. "Tails wanted to explain the communicator to me. Is there food around or do I have to make something myself?"

Silver gave him a subtle once over and nodded. "We've got some stuff. I'll show you."

As Silver turned away, Mephiles' casual stance melted into weariness. He glanced at the crystal still clutched his hand, then tucked it in his quills and followed Silver into the kitchen.

* * *

 **Shadow isn't making the best choices here. Honestly, he should stop making things harder on himself, he'll have enough trouble when Mephiles remembers-  
**

 **Er. You saw nothing.**

 **Thanks for reading, and please review - it really makes my day!**


	10. Recall

**We're returning to a Saturday update schedule! When on Saturday, who can say, but it'll be Saturdays in my time zone. Any case, going forward I'll be posting updates on both my AO3 and ffnet accounts. This shouldn't make a difference but I wanted to let you know.**

 **Before the chapter, I have a quick question for you folks. Thanks to camp nano, I have a set of disconnected shorts that happen vaguely between this chapter and the next, none of them long enough to be their own chapter, but some containing info that could clarify future events in this fic. Would it be better to post them in a separate work, or compile them into a couple chapters here? It shouldn't affect my posting schedule either way.  
(Edit: never mind, I think I've found a workaround.)  
**

 **That said, enjoy!**

* * *

Sonic dodged a strike aimed at him and shot his opponent a confident grin. "Missed me!"

"I noticed." Mephiles swept a hand out as Sonic aimed a spin dash at his face. The speedster was flung back by an invisible force.

Sonic righted himself and landed on his feet, immediately charging in to initiate a close-quarters brawl. He couldn't use his speed to best effect at this range, but neither could Mephiles focus enough to use his powers. They grappled for several seconds before Mephiles suddenly shoved him away and leapt backwards. Sonic didn't have time to resolve his confusion before something large and heavy hit him from behind.

Mephiles watched as Shadow tried to get up, failed due to quills making poor footholds, rolled over, and climbed to his feet, all while Sonic remained faceplanted and groaning.

Shadow looked down, expression impassive. "Get up, faker. I've seen you survive worse."

"That doesn't mean it doesn't _hurt_." Sonic's words were muffled by the dirt.

Silver finally got tired of hovering above them and dropped to the ground. "Does that mean we win?"

"Maybe…" A blue blur whipped around, knocking Silver and Mephiles over before stopping at Shadow's side. "If you can beat that!"

Silver was slow to right himself, but Mephiles immediately melted into the shadows. Sonic yelped as Mephiles materialized right beside him and swept his legs out from under him. "I just did."

There was a brief moment of silence. Then Sonic burst out laughing. The others exchanged confused looks as he almost started rolling with laughter.

Sonic wiped away a tear as he finally regained control of himself. "Oh man. Meph, never change. That was great."

"I'm glad you think so." Mephiles knew his tone and posture were a bit stiff, but nobody seemed to notice. "Does that mean we win?"

The ensuing argument lasted until they reached the house.

A few days had passed since what they'd dubbed the regression incident, and they hadn't found any new information. So the Squad had spent their time racing around zones, letting Mephiles get acquainted with the group's shared history while practicing his abilities in various remote locations. That was how they'd ended up in an impromptu paired sparring match in this secluded forest. It wasn't anything like the strangest place they'd been.

Shadow left with a vague mention of a mission when they arrived home, but the others decided to stick around for the moment, even Sonic. Mephiles sequestered himself in his room, as had become his habit, and Sonic convinced Silver to play a game with him (albeit reluctantly).

They'd just finished a level when Shadow came bursting through the door, wide-eyed and harried. "Where's Mephiles?"

Silver looked up with a puzzled frown. "In his room. Why?" But Shadow had already vanished upstairs. "What was that about?"

Sonic shrugged, already on his feet. "Dunno, but-"

His sentence was cut short when they both heard yelling from the second floor. Without even a glance needed between them, they sprinted toward the sound.

Shadow stood near Silver's door, eyes wide with shock and – was that _hurt_? Mephiles stood across from him in the doorway to his room, arms crossed and eyes colder than Silver could ever remember seeing them.

No, that wasn't quite right. He'd seen those eyes before, in a desolate world of flame and ruin, on someone he'd thought he could trust. The juxtaposition made him suck in a startled breath.

Their heads whipped around at the slight sound. Shadow looked shocked, eyes darting to Mephiles as the other's surprise faded to something vaguely sinister.

"Hello," he said in a near purr. "We were just talking about you."

Shadow scowled. "Don't involve them."

"Oh, but they're already involved, aren't they?" Mephiles said, tone oily slick. "They'll find out sooner or later, you know."

Silver glanced between them, suddenly uncertain. "What are you talking about?"

Shadow sighed, still glaring at Mephiles. "He's regressed again."

"Though the term is inaccurate," Mephiles said, almost thinking out loud, "given it implies a negative effect. I'm more myself now than before."

"How does losing part of your memory make you more yourself?"

Mephiles shot Shadow a smug look. "Misinformation can harm, you know."

Shadow's glare didn't waver. "I'm not the only one who failed there."

"I think you're referring to the other me. He has different priorities."

"You're the same person."

"Hardly. We happen to have certain attributes in common, but as I retain my memories of his waking periods, I can state with certainty that we are not the same."

Silver paused as that sank in. "Hold on. You _keep_ those memories?"

Mephiles gave him a scornful look. "Obviously. I only become that other self when I lose access to key memories." His expression changed to one of dark mirth. "Why are you so shocked? You should know better than anyone that I can't be trusted."

Silver ignored Shadow's uneasy look. "Yeah, well, I've seen that you're capable of good too, when you're not… like this."

"Ah, yes, my 'normal' state." He didn't go as far as making air quotes, but his tone made them perfectly clear. "That state in which some of my memories are unavailable. Tell me, do you see the flaw in this logic?"

Silver held out a hand to stop Shadow from speaking. "And that means that your other state somehow doesn't count? Listen, Meph-"

Mephiles' face was suddenly inches from his own. "Don't you dare call me that," he snarled. "The other me might allow it, but I refuse to-"

"Meph, Meph, Meph, Meph, Meph. By the way, Tails says the energy surge is dying down, so say goodbye for now." Sonic held up his wrist to show the chart on his com unit.

Silver blinked. "When did you get here?"

"Same time you did. Seemed like you had things covered, so I checked in with Tails. Now what're we doing about him?" He nodded at Mephiles, by now seething at being ignored.

Shadow frowned. "He should return to normal soon. Though I wish I knew what exactly was causing this."

Mephiles got an ominous glint in his eyes. "Oh, that's easy. The seal has begun to crack, and soon we will complete our objective."

Sonic blinked. "Say what?"

"Oh, you'll see. While you run around blind, the time approaches. Soon you'll… see…" His eyes slid closed, and he slumped to the floor, cracking his head against the boards.

Silver winced at the sound, but waited a couple seconds before cautiously approaching. When Mephiles didn't stir, he carefully lifted his unconscious form and carried him into the room.

Shadow placed a towel-wrapped bag of ice on Mephiles' forehead and secured it with a few loose layers of gauze. He gestured at the door and left. Silver hesitated briefly before following, closing the door on his way out.

He found Shadow at the table downstairs, head resting in his hands. Sonic was once again nowhere to be seen, so Silver settled across from him.

Shadow didn't even raise his head as he spoke. "I suppose you want to know what we discussed."

Silver blinked. "Um. Not really? It's between you two, and since Meph wasn't himself, it's up to you."

Shadow raised his eyes, gaze inscrutable. "Is that how you see it then?"

"I wouldn't say it if it wasn't."

Shadow sighed and allowed his hands to fall to the table. "I've kept information from you recently. Some of it things that should be shared. However… for various reasons, I intend to continue withholding some things." He couldn't quite meet Silver's eyes. "Mephiles… became more aware of this while regressed. He challenged my choices. As you saw."

Silver was silent for a moment. Then he sighed. "I can't say I agree with that choice. You know how I feel about keeping secrets. But…" He paused, waiting until Shadow raised his eyes once more. "I trust you to make the best decision you can. And I'll respect that."

Shadow watched him with an unreadable expression for a long moment. Then he closed his eyes and bowed his head slightly, the faintest trace of a smile playing across his lips. "Very well then."

A muffled thump and curse from upstairs interrupted their conversation. Silver sighed and rose to his feet. "I should-"

Shadow placed a hand on his shoulder. "Allow me."

Silver gave him a puzzled look, but settled back in his seat as Shadow headed upstairs.

Mephiles was curled up on the ground when Shadow arrived. He clutched at his head, eyes squeezed shut in obvious pain, ice pack and gauze lying on his pillow. Shadow suppressed a sigh and retrieved the ice, holding it against Mephiles' head until Mephiles took it, eyes opening to look up at him with more than a little trepidation. "Regression?"

"It would seem so." Shadow waited for Mephiles to stand, not bother with an offer of help that would be refused anyway.

Mephiles shifted his hold on the ice. "There seems to be a correlation between regressions and head injuries."

"You passed out and hit the floor before anyone reacted."

He raised a brow. "Even Sonic?"

Shadow frowned. "He keeps disappearing. Most likely he was nowhere nearby at the time."

Mephiles nodded, glancing downstairs at an especially loud noise from the TV. "You came to check on me."

"I did." He paused briefly before answering the unspoken question. "I have some questions the others ought not hear."

Mephiles tilted his head, then nodded. "Alright. But I won't promise to answer."

Shadow concealed his surprise that Mephiles was cooperating at all by jumping right into the questions. "To begin with, have you regained any new memories?"

Mephiles looked at him like he wasn't quite sure the question was serious. "How would I know? I can't distinguish that easily."

"It seemed worth asking. The memories gained during regression might be more distinctive."

"Gained?"

Shadow winced internally when he realized what he'd said, but didn't bother trying to backtrack. "You mentioned it while regressed, among other things."

His expression darkened. "I can guess what he said."

Now it was Shadow's turn to be thrown off. "He?"

"We aren't exactly the same person. It seems unreasonable to refer to him as myself." His eyes darted away for an instant before settling back on Shadow, who didn't react to the subtle tell, expression remaining cool and calculating.

"So," he said, "because your memory is affected, you aren't the same. Does that mean one of the two is less real for it?"

Mephiles' eyes darted away again, but this time he kept his gaze fixed on a corner of the room. Shadow took note of this and waited patiently for Mephiles' response. "Maybe."

"Idiot."

He snapped his head back to face Shadow, startled green locking on cool red. "Wh-what?"

"If you honestly think that, then I severely overestimated your intelligence. Memory may affect your views and change how you behave, but losing or gaining them does not make the other states less valuable. I should know." He turned toward the door, concealing his expression. "Silver will be wondering what's taking so long."

Mephiles watched him leave, still a bit stunned. He managed to shake it off after a minute and followed him downstairs.

Silver perked up immediately upon their entrance. "Hey Meph. Your head okay?"

"Relatively. The rock incident was worse."

"I said I was sorry."

"Sorry to interrupt," Sonic called, bursting through the front door, "but Eggman's causing trouble. Anyone up for smashing some bots?"

"I am." Everyone turned to look at Mephiles. He shrugged. "I need a destressor."

Silver grimaced. "Good point. In that case, I'm in too."

Shadow shook his head. "I have other business to finish first. Don't contact me unless it's urgent." He pulled out his chaos emerald and teleported away without another word.

The others exchanged looks, then shrugged. "It's near the jungle from the other day," Sonic said. "Meet you there?"

Mephiles nodded. "I can teleport over."

"Alright, see you in a few!" Sonic waved and took off.

Silver watched Mephiles with a slight frown. Mephiles noticed after a moment and gave him a quizzical look. "Is something wrong?"

"Huh? Oh, uh." He shook himself a bit to escape whatever hazy stupor he'd achieved. "Not really. Just… contact us if there's a problem, okay?"

Mephiles appeared doubtful, but didn't press. "Of course. Don't take too long getting there." He melted into the shadows, vanishing almost as fast as Sonic.

Silver stood alone for a long moment before hurrying after as fast as possible.

Mephiles was never quite sure what to make of fights with Eggman. He hadn't seen too many, with how little time he'd been around the others, but he'd seen enough to get a feel for the strange system they had outside of larger adventures. The heroes got some good exercise out of it, and Eggman got... who knows, a chance to test his robots maybe. He certainly wasn't taking it all that seriously. Regardless of what he was getting out of it, it was certainly a strange system.

But it wasn't just that throwing him off. It was the strange feeling Eggman gave him. He always seemed to just... _know_ something. Like that first time they'd met, with his all too knowing comment, as though his presence had merely cemented some theory. It was unsettling, and more than a little concerning.

That didn't much affect the simple joy of destroying bots and having him rage though. It was strangely exhilarating to be on this side of the fight. He had some memories now of his time as a villain, albeit rather spotty ones, but he couldn't recall ever feeling the same sort of satisfaction that he did fighting mechanical baddies with the others.

(Not including a few memories that he tried not to think about too much. They reminded him of dreams that felt too real for his liking.)

He ducked under some kind of mechanical arm thing as it swung at him while keeping part of his mind focused on his power usage. As great as phasing through things was, it did have its limits when it came to power use. He couldn't just do it endlessly, especially not if he wanted to use his other powers as well. Speaking of...

Silver jumped a bit when Mephiles melted into existence behind him, but seemed relatively calm about the situation. Or as calm as someone throwing crates at enemies could seem.

Mephiles ignored him for a moment in favor of taking out a couple enemies attempting to sneak in from Silver's blind spot, receiving an appreciative nod for his efforts before the telekinetic threw one of the trashed machines at a particularly tough looking enemy.

Mephiles admired the hole through the thing's middle before slipping back to his corner of their formation. (Sonic took point, mostly because he'd been here most often, though he also had a coin flip in his favor. Silver was none too pleased about that.) He turned to face another enemy, settling into a fighting stance.

 _Colors, but not, it was all black and darkness, what is this where am I this can't be real but here is a safe spot hidehidehide-_

Silver saw Mephiles jerk and stop short, frozen as though he'd been hit over the head, before collapsing to his knees. The telekinetic cursed internally and tossed his current opponent to the side, ignoring the set of tiny robots it crushed as he rushed to Mephiles' side. "Sonic, heads up!"

Sonic called something back, maybe an affirmative, maybe a question. It didn't much matter when nothing good could have caused that reaction.

He swept robots aside as he raced forward, not really noticing whether he'd properly crushed them or just pushed them away in his haste. When he finally reached Mephiles, he fell to his knees in front of him, hands hovering above his friend's shoulders uncertainly. This looked like a blackout, but it had hit as hard and fast as a brick to the head. Those were always the worst for helping someone through.

(He didn't let himself think about the possibility that it was another regression. They'd handle that if it came to it.)

"Mephiles," he finally said, "can you hear me?"

Mephiles looked up, meeting his worried gaze, but his eyes were blank and unseeing. He didn't speak.

Whatever was going on, it was definitely looking to be one of the worse blackouts. Great. This would be fun.

Well, at least it wasn't another regression. Once in one day was plenty.

"You got him?"

Silver didn't look up when Sonic spoke. "I hope so. He's pretty deep in."

Sonic glanced at the robots hovering uncertainly around them. They'd stopped attacking a minute ago for whatever reason. He wasn't about to question it. "Did you try yelling yet?"

"That's a last resort for a reason."

"Did you try everything else?"

Silver finally looked up at him, but only briefly. "Not really. I don't know what memory he's in."

"Talk to him. Maybe he'll tell you."

Silver grimaced, but decided it was worth a shot. Certainly better than doing nothing. "Mephiles. I need you to tell me what's happening. What can you see? What do you hear?"

"Bright..."

The whispered word surprised them both, but it left Silver with no small amount of relief. "Okay. Good. Keep going. Anything else?"

"Color," Mephiles said, still in the barest whisper. "Too many. Not the same, too much dark, too much bright, need to get away, need to hide hide hide..."

His already quiet voice receded into a mumble, but they'd heard enough to proceed, if not enough to know what he was remembering. Silver took a deep breath, releasing it slowly before speaking. "Alright Meph. That's not happening right now. You're here, with me and Sonic, in the jungle, and we were fighting some robots. Sound familiar?"

The mumbling faded to nothing, which Silver took as a good sign. "Can you hear me?"

There was a painfully long pause. Then, finally, Mephiles nodded the slightest bit.

"Are you with me?"

"Yeah." Mephiles uncurled a bit, some of the cloudiness in his eyes fading. "I'm. Going to go home for now. I'll talk to you when you get there."

Before anyone could respond, Mephiles melted into the shadows. When he didn't reappear for several seconds, Sonic shrugged and jerked a thumb at the enemies still hovering uncertainly behind them. "Back to the fight, then? These bots won't smash themselves you know."

Silver tried not to feel too irritated at Sonic's apparent lack of caring. He knew it was the other's way of trying to handle the uncertainty, and hopefully help Silver do the same. So instead of getting mad, he stood, brushed himself off, and nodded. "Okay. Let's do this."

Shadow hadn't expected anyone else to be home when he returned from his mission. With as late as they'd headed out, he would have thought they would camp out somewhere for the night. Sonic generally preferred that anyway, and Silver didn't mind too much after growing up camping most of the time. (Not to say that he didn't appreciate modern conveniences, but he didn't get too out of sorts without them.)

Though, after thinking about it, he realized that he had no idea what Mephiles thought of sleeping outside. The dark one himself might not even know. So perhaps it wasn't so surprising to find him sitting on the couch instead of out with the others.

Still, it would be rude not to at least acknowledge him. "Mephiles. I thought you were out with Sonic and Silver?"

"I was," he said, not looking away from the TV. "I decided to return early. I assume they chose to stay out longer, given they aren't here."

"Indeed." Shadow frowned, walking over behind the couch. "Have you been sitting here with the TV off for long?"

"Maybe."

So presumably as long as he'd been home. Who knew how long that might have been. Shadow waited for a moment to see if Mephiles would elaborate, then turned to go upstairs.

"Say, Shadow..."

He paused, turning slightly toward Mephiles, noting that he still hadn't moved. "Yes?"

Mephiles sat in silence for a long moment, then suddenly shook himself and stood. "Nothing. Never mind. I'm tired, I think it's time for me to go to bed."

Shadow let him pass, watching as he climbed upstairs before following without a word.

Silver looked up from his breakfast at the sound of footsteps, still a bit bleary eyed from adventuring and lack of sleep. "Morning Shadow."

"Good morning." He paused for a moment, then asked, "Did anything happen yesterday with Mephiles?"

"Blackout. We're not entirely sure what memory it was, but he decided to come back early after that. Why?"

"No reason," he said, serving himself some breakfast. And that was the end of it.


	11. Everyday Secrecy

**Hey folks! Sorry this is getting out a day late. However, this is actually a good thing, considering my state of mind when I was editing yesterday. Who knows what weirdness would have snuck by me if I hadn't gone to sleep instead. (The weirdness that is a part of this chapter doesn't count. Because I acknowledge that there is some definite weirdness in here. And I'm still not super happy with some of the characterizations here, but oh well.)  
**

 **In any case, hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Mephiles woke up disoriented, as he often did when he woke at night. The darkness wasn't complete, thankfully, but it was enough to make him feel... uneasy.

He reached over and lit the bedside lamp, relaxing as gentle light filled the room. But even as his fear vanished, he turned to self-deprecation. What kind of logic was that, someone who commanded darkness being scared of the dark?

Well. Scared of the dark wasn't exactly the phrase he'd use. But it was easier to accept than what he knew to be the entire problem.

Having calmed himself a bit, he adjusted the cover on the light so it would shine mostly away from him and slipped under the covers again, curling into the patch of warmth he'd left. It was fortunate that he didn't need as much sleep as the others. More than Shadow by a great deal, but still less than anyone else. He'd noticed that even with the three or four hours of unbroken sleep he was sure of getting, he functioned just fine most days. Six hours seemed to be ideal and the most he'd managed at a time was eight hours. Though he still appreciated the little joy that laying in a warm bed could bring.

When he opened his eyes again, faint light was peeking through the curtains. He turned off the lamp (no need to waste more power than he already had) and rolled over, putting his shoes on before heading downstairs.

For once he was the first one up. Though that made sense, considering that included the sun just barely peeking over the horizon. He allowed himself a laugh, so soft it was more an outburst of breath than an actual noise, before moving to get some food.

By the time he'd finished his small breakfast, soft sounds of movement could be heard from above, the household so used to catching sleep in scraps when they could almost unable to sleep in without an exhausting adventure behind them. He debated saying hi to the others, then decided against it. They knew by now that he tended to head out early when there weren't any plans in place. And unlike Sonic, he kept his com unit on most of the time. They could contact him if something came up. So he simply melted into the shadows, picking a location somewhat close for a change of pace.

He materialized in an open patch of air, looking around curiously. He wasn't too concerned about appearing somewhere dangerous (it only happened once, no matter what the others thought), so he could take the time to appreciate the flower-speckled meadow as the lovely, bright place it was.

Zone hopping wasn't a half bad hobby. It was nice wandering around without any particular goal in mind. And as a bonus, usually he didn't have much chance of running into the others, excluding Sonic since the speedster could visit the whole globe in a day if he really wanted.

"Oh! Hi, Mephiles. I didn't expect to see you out here."

Then again, there were exceptions to every rule.

Mephiles looked up from gazing idly over the meadow to find Amy holding a young rabbit by the hand. He debated ignoring them, then decided that was a bit ruder than he felt that day. "I could say the same to you."

Amy smiled, though it was a little shaky. He gave her points for effort anyway. "We usually come out to a meadow once or twice a month to make flower crowns when it's the right season. This is Cream. She's been on some of our adventures with us." The rabbit girl dipped in a slight curtsy as best she could without releasing Amy's hand. "And Cream, this is Mephiles. He... er..." Amy faltered, apparently lost for words.

Cream gave Mephiles a curious look, seemingly not noticing Amy's sudden hesitance. "Mister Mephiles, are you Mister Shadow's brother?"

Mephiles snorted. "No, we aren't related."

"Oh, okay." She dropped Amy's hand and skipped away to pick some flowers, apparently satisfied with that answer.

Amy hovered for a moment, then lowered herself to sit at Mephiles' side. They watched the young girl with only the sound of the breeze for a few minutes. Mephiles was content with staying that way. Amy, it seemed, was not.

"So Mephiles," she said, breaking the peaceful silence, "I've been meaning to ask. Are you... are you mad about the hammer thing? When we met at Tails' house?"

He looked up at her, surprised by the uncommon timidity in her tone. "No? Why would I be? You have every right to be angry for my past actions, even if they were undone."

She relaxed a bit, but seemed to gain a different sort of tension, managing to meet his eyes properly with a bit of worry in her expression. "You do know I'm not exactly mad, right? You're different from the way you were before, and you wouldn't do any of that again. Right?"

It took Mephiles a moment to remember that only a few people knew about his regressions, those being Tails and the three hedgehogs. They'd collectively agreed that it would be best not to concern the others with that whole mess until they had a better idea of what was going on themselves. It seemed unwise to scare them without anything solid to go off if it wouldn't actually help anything. Especially when they were beginning to get along with Mephiles.

(The dark being wasn't so sure about that last one, but he wasn't particularly eager to talk about his situation with the others, so he let it slide.)

"I don't intend anything of the sort," he said simply, sidestepping the issue in what he hoped was a discreet fashion. He didn't especially want to lie to Amy - she seemed like a nice enough girl, from what little he'd seen - but he also didn't feel like meeting the business end of her hammer. Not that he wanted to go against the agreement either but that went without saying.

"That's good," she said, smile becoming a bit more genuine. It almost made Mephiles feel guilty about his little lie by omission.

Almost being the operative word. He really didn't feel like introducing his face and that hammer. And no, he wasn't scared. But he couldn't deny that Amy alarmed him a bit with her endless enthusiasm. He'd noticed that even Shadow sometimes lost a touch of his stoicism when she got serious.

The two of them sat in silence for a bit longer, just appreciating the breeze and the gentle scent of flowers.

"I like it out here," Amy said suddenly, getting Mephiles' attention. "It feels so fresh and clean. Nothing like back in the city. I like it there too, but..."

"It's not the same?" he prompted when she failed to continue.

She smiled at him, though it seemed a little melancholy. "Yeah. Besides, I think Sonic likes these open areas more, so it's best if I spend more time out here, right?"

...Er. "I suppose so," he hedged, not really wanting to get involved in the 'relationship' between the two of them.

Amy gave him a faintly suspicious look at his response, apparently sensing his thoughts to some degree, but seemed to dismiss the thought a moment later. "Anyway, what brings you out here? If you don't mind me asking."

He shrugged, trying to hide his relief at the narrow escape. "No real reason. I've been exploring a bit when the others are busy. Everyone needs a hobby, and this seems to be mine now."

She nodded, clearly satisfied with that answer.

"Miss Amy, Mister Mephiles, look!" Cream came running up, grinning wide.

"What is it, Cream?" Amy asked, sitting up properly.

"I made crowns for all of us!" she said, holding up three pink, blue, and purple flower crowns with clear delight. Then she hesitated and looked at Mephiles. "Is... is that okay?"

Mephiles blinked at her, not even noticing Amy watching him closely as he tried to understand the question. "Of... course it is?"

Cream's smile came back as sunny as before. "Alright! Here, it should fit okay." She placed the crown on his head, not having to reach for it since he was still sitting on the ground. He still bowed his head slightly, lifting it as she turned to put one on Amy's head as well. "Well? What do you think?"

He resisted the urge to touch the flowers, worried he'd knock the fragile crown off his head if he did. "It's very nice. ...Thank you."

Amy smiled, recognizing the sincerity in Mephiles' thanks as Cream beamed. Maybe he was more of a good guy than she'd given him credit for. He may have been her enemy before, but it was time to put the past in the past and help out instead of making things harder for her new friend and teammate.

* * *

It was past lunchtime by the time Mephiles returned to town, but he stopped to pick up food anyway. After getting through the expected curious questions ("No I don't have a mouth, yes that's unusual, no it doesn't prevent me from eating, no I do not need lactose free I would have asked, just give me my food please") and heading out, he decided to make a quick stop by the bookstore before heading home.

Books and music were the other hobby he'd picked up recently. That so many brilliant concepts and visions could be condensed into ink on paper never ceased to amaze him, and music held so much emotion with simple notes and modulated sound. He found himself slightly inclined to nonfiction, but fictional universes held their own intrigue. Music, he tried not to limit his intake.

Not romance, though. Never romance. Not books, not music, not movies. The subject was... inherently unappealing. He couldn't understand why the raving masses so enjoyed the vision of two paper-thin characters going through countless trivial encounters before engaging in the pursuit of physical pleasures of some sort together.

He might take Amy up on her offer to watch a romance movie though. Mostly because his wish to stay in her good graces outweighed his wish to avoid romance.

As he approached the bookstore, he happened to notice Shadow in casual conversation with the store owner. (Jason? Jake? The jackal had introduced himself at some point, but the name had slipped his mind.)

Mephiles paused on the other side of the street, debating. He had something else he had to do still. And that should happen before he spoke with Shadow without one of the others, so...

Decision made, he vanished into the shadows, headed back to the house so he could eat before making his stop.

"Do you know that hedgehog that looks just like you but with a different color scheme?"

Shadow paused in his discussion with Jacob, turning to the girl shelving books behind them. "I do. Why?"

She nodded toward the door. "He was across the street looking this way. First time I realized how alike you two look. Long lost brother?"

"Sarah!" Jacob hissed, plainly appalled by her nosiness.

She held up her hands in surrender. "Just asking."

"We aren't exactly related," Shadow said. "It's complicated. And I'd rather you not mention even that much to anyone else."

"Our lips are sealed," Jacob assured as Sarah mimed zipping her lips. "Anything else I can help you with?"

"No, that will be all, thank you. How much?"

* * *

Sonic watched curiously as Mephiles snarled and paced, mumbling something under his breath. Coming across the dark being during a run wasn't uncommon(simple probability - he visited so many places on any given day that it would have been strange not to find him once in a while), but he usually seemed relatively calm. And while this wasn't destructive in a way that concerned Sonic, it was far from calm. Even without that, why would he come here of all places?

"Damn it," Mephiles growled, stopping to glare at the ground in front of him. "Stop being such a coward. There's no danger, it's - I have no reason to be scared. I'm stronger than that anyway. They couldn't... I'm safe. There's no danger. So why can't I just- hey!"

Sonic jumped, then smiled sheepishly as he realized he'd been spotted. He waved a little. "Hey Meph. You doing okay?"

Mephiles growled, fixing him with the same glare he had pointed at the ground moments before. "Why were you watching me?" he asked, apparently ignoring Sonic's good-natured inquiry.

The speedster didn't worry about it too much. He was extremely used to prickly personalities. "No real reason. Saw you while out running and stopped to say hi, but you didn't seem like you'd appreciate it much."

"Not in the least. Goodbye."

Sonic watched him melt away, then shrugged and turned to continue his run, not too put out by the attitude. Mephiles' attitude tended to be more abrasive when regressed so...

Wait. He looked over his shoulder, frowning. "Was he regressed? Didn't think to check, but why else would he come here?"

He puzzled it over for a moment before putting it out of his mind. He could talk to Silver about it later.

(He forgot.)

* * *

Mephiles arrived in his room with plenty of time before their usual dinner hour. He paused before exiting to look over his collection of crystals, scattered across the desk in whatever fashion pleased him at any given point. It wasn't a huge collection, since he'd only started very recently and didn't have any income, but a few gifts from the others (mainly Sonic's explorations) meant it wasn't a bad size for a fledgling collection.

As often happened, Mephiles' eyes drifted toward the neat row of sticky notes on the other end of the desk. No new ones, so he shouldn't look at them again. It would only bring his mood down.

Against his better judgment, he scanned the notes, reading each line as though he hadn't memorized the whole thing.

 _You're an idiot. A clueless idiot who doesn't even know enough to realize that much._

 _I know._

 _Don't say that. I know because I know more than you. But you can't know because you know less than me._

 _That I know less is obvious._

 _Is it? If it was, why would you say 'I know' like you actually do? Don't say I know unless you really do know, even with your minuscule knowledge._

 _I know enough to understand why you're angry._

As there weren't any new notes, there was nothing left for him to do there, so he turned and left the room feeling a bit disheartened. That conversation was always draining.

The sound of a game on the TV greeted him as he descended the stairs. Sonic was shooting snappy remarks at Shadow that were occasionally returned in kind (much to Sonic's apparent delight) as Silver looked on with mild bemusement from the kitchen island.

The telekinetic glanced up when Mephiles entered and waved, remaining silent to avoid disturbing the heated match. Mephiles wandered over and raised a brow at him, his question clear. _What in the world are they doing?_

Silver shrugged and offered a wry grin. _Who knows with them._

Conversation concluded to both of their satisfaction, they turned to watch their housemates beat each other into the ground in some game.

Mephiles' com pinged on his wrist, and he glanced at it, eyes widening briefly before his expression went flat. "Well that's unfortunate."

Silver gave him a puzzled look, but didn't get a chance to say anything before Mephiles gasped and fell forward, just managing to catch himself on the island. He froze as the dark being heaved a ragged breath, torn between staying back - the smart choice, now that he'd realized what had to be happening - and the wish to help his friend.

As it turned out, it didn't much matter; Mephiles righted himself a moment later, breathing returning to normal. His eyes met Silver's, slit pupiled and seeming to glow faintly. Without a word, he turned and stalked upstairs.

"What was that about?"

Silver suddenly realized that Sonic and Shadow had paused their game and were watching with clear concern. He tried not to grimace too obviously. "Nothing much. Mephiles regressed again."

Shadow simply nodded, the explanation all he was after. Sonic, on the other hand, tried for a reassuring smile. "Well... at least this time he didn't start throwing insults at everyone?"

"Is that really a positive though?" Shadow said, though it wasn't quite a question.

Sonic and Silver stared openly at him. "What."

He shrugged, setting his controller on the table and turning to better face both of them. "Mephiles has been intentionally antagonistic while regressed. We've all noticed this, even though we've only seen him regressed a few times. I imagine there must be a reason behind it. So why would he change his behavior so suddenly?"

Sonic and Silver exchanged uncertain looks, not sure how to reply. Shadow nodded like they'd confirmed something. "Exactly. It means something is different this time, and we don't even know what caused his original pattern of behavior. This obviously isn't the best state of affairs, but there isn't much we can do."

"It might not be that big a deal," Sonic said, though the slightly higher pitch of his voice made it less reassuring than it might have been even as he tried to regulate it. "I mean," he added, a bit calmer this time, "maybe he's just tired?"

Shadow frowned. "Sonic... is everything alright?"

"Of course," he said, pulling out a grin that was enough to reassure Silver but had Shadow's frown deepening. "I just don't want us worrying about nothing, you know?"

Silver shrugged. "Fair enough. I'm gonna get some food started now if you don't mind."

As he turned to begin working, Silver heard Shadow growl something under his breath, then receive a few equally soft words in response. He pulled out a pan and some ingredients without muffling the noise as much as he usually would. No need to eavesdrop if he could help it.

* * *

Mephiles opened his eyes, blinking sleepily as he tried to figure out what woke him. More importantly, though, why had he been asleep? It was broad daylight outside.

Then it came back to him. Another regression. Right.

His eyes skated over to the desk before he even began dragging himself out of bed. (Sleep during the day was easier to come by, but almost always left him more exhausted than he started. It was an unfortunate tradeoff.) It looked like there was another note, but from this distance...

There was, in fact, another note, and his expression darkened a bit as he read it. He pulled another note off the nearby cube, scribbled a message, and stuck it at the bottom of the trail, turning to leave before he could think better of it.

 _I hate you._

 _I know. Me too._


	12. Put to Rest

**Hey! Sorry I'm late again, this weekend sure happened and that's all I can really say on the matter.**

 **Anyway, quick request before the chapter: do you have any music that makes you think of this story? If so, let me know so I can add to my Wake playlist. There's never enough music on it.**

 **And with that, enjoy!**

* * *

Mephiles cursed under his breath as he once again failed to throw a properly formed chaos spear. The few times he'd succeeded in making one, it was rough and difficult to control, making it almost impossible to use effectively. There was a reason he used his shadow abilities more often, especially in combat situations.

Still, from what Shadow had explained, having enough energy to use chaos abilities made it important to use them. He was a bit hazy on the details but knew the results of containing that much energy could be explosive in the most literal sense. So he was trying to burn off the excess energy by learning how to use it while Shadow watched.

At least, an onlooker could be forgiven for thinking that was all he was doing. Save for the occasional offhand remark, he wasn't exactly taking an active role in Mephiles' education. Yet Shadow suspected it was because of this detachment that he could provide any sort of useful guidance. He was fully aware that a more hands-on approach on his part would likely speed up the learning process, but with Mephiles' strangely distant attitude it seemed unwise. Especially since he wasn't sure of the cause. Mephiles had seemed to be warming up to their merry band, but out of nowhere he suddenly returned to his previous wariness. He hadn't heard anything from the others about it, so presumably it was some action of his own that caused the sudden change. But until he had some idea of what it might be, not pushing too hard seemed the best course of action.

Not that it was all that serious a delay. In the past weeks, Mephiles had gained enough control over his energy emissions to at least keep them from burning any sentient beings in the vicinity (himself included), though the few weeds that had survived long enough to sprout in the yard weren't so lucky. It couldn't be called massive progress, but it was enough for someone who didn't plan to use those powers for anything requiring finesse.

"That's enough for the day," Shadow said suddenly, ever conscious of his student's chaos reserves.

The tension in Mephiles' shoulders eased as he released the tight hold on his energy. Chaos wasn't his original energy source, and he obviously had more trouble managing it than he did his shadow abilities. Though Sonic had mentioned him wielding his shadows much more naturally when regressed, so what would that mean for his chaos skills?

"Is something wrong?"

Shadow blinked, breaking out of his thoughts to find Mephiles looking at him. "No, nothing's wrong. It just occurred to me, would regression affect your ability to wield chaos energy?"

Mephiles continued to look at him, unmoving and unblinking. "I can't say, but I doubt my regressed self would be willing to experiment with you."

"Oh?"

"He... is holding on to a bit of a grudge."

Shadow frowned. "Because of Solaris?"

Mephiles turned away, suddenly unable to meet his eyes. "Maybe. Who knows. I'm going to head home now."

"Wait-" Shadow held a hand out, then dropped it once it was clear Mephiles had already vanished. He stood there for a minute in silence before turning to go inside.

xxx

Silver looked up when Mephiles entered the kitchen, starting to smile but letting it drop when he saw Mephiles' expression. "You okay?"

"Tired from chaos practice this morning," he said, taking a seat at the island and resting his head on his arms. "I'll be fine once I get something to eat."

Silver contemplated for a moment, then nodded as he came to a decision. "Want to go get takeout? We'll eat here obviously, but I hear that new place a few blocks over has good shakes."

Mephiles' raised his head a bit to shoot Silver one of his strange mouthless smiles. "That sounds like an excellent idea."

xxx

"How do you drink with a straw, anyway?"

Mephiles glanced at Silver as he placed his bags of food on the counter and sorted through the contents. "I have no idea. How do I eat in general?"

Silver tilted his head, thinking, and nodded slowly. "Good point. I was just thinking, it has to be harder than eating otherwise, so why bother with things that you have to use a straw for? I know you avoid using utensils if you can help it, but you're obsessed with those mint chip shakes."

Mephiles looked away, using the excuse of peering into one of the bags. "I'm not sure. I just... really like colors, for some reason. And that's more or less my color, if it weren't so bright. This one's yours."

Silver took the bag from him. "Thanks. Mind if I eat out today? There's somewhere I should be in a bit."

"That's perfectly fine." He hoped the unspoken thanks at the subtle out would be audible regardless.

Silver nodded and shot him a smile before leaving.

Mephiles ate quickly, debating his options for a bit before deciding to head over to the lab. He wasn't much in the mood for exploration today, and he doubted Shadow would still be around.

xxx

"I don't think they'd expected there to be so many options! I sure didn't. How many different shaped lights do you need?" Sonic laughed, a bemused but still perfectly cheerful sound.

Tails smiled at his brother's tale. "I guess they want to provide a bunch of options. Did they manage to pick one?"

"Yeah, a chao-shaped one. I think Cheese picked it, actually. Bet it'll be easier for them to reach the bathroom at night now."

"I expect so." He turned and jumped, startled to see they weren't alone. "Oh, hi, Mephiles. I didn't hear you come in."

The dark being shrugged and leaned against the wall. "I only just got here. What were you talking about just now?"

"Sonic helped Cream and Cheese pick out a new night light since the old one broke. Their room gets too dark at night to , and Vanilla was busy, so Sonic offered to help."

"Hm. Seems fair."

Despite Mephiles' carefully upheld nonchalance, Sonic thought he could sense a spark of curiosity, or even interest, in his eyes. It only took a moment for him to realize why. But he hesitated before speaking up. He knew how important it was to treat people's emotions with care in this kind of thing. Especially since Mephiles had almost definitely kept it secret on purpose, and probably wouldn't appreciate Tails figuring it out because of a lack of subtlety.

That problem was solved fairly fast as Mephiles tilted his head, looking faintly puzzled. "Is something burning?"

Tails' eyes widened. "Shoot, I forgot!" He rushed out of the room.

Mephiles gave Sonic a bemused look, but only received a shrug in return. "Probably cooking something. Anyway, if you're interested in getting a night light, just say so. I'd be happy to show you the store."

Mephiles' expression went perfectly neutral. "I'm a creature of darkness. Why would I need a device used for children afraid of the dark?"

"Art? Not tripping over stuff in the dark? There's ones with a switch if you want to be able to turn it off without unplugging it."

The casual misdirection didn't seem to convince him. Sonic sighed and ran a hand through his quills, debating. He wasn't planning to say this, but...

"Did you know I can't swim?"

The dark being's neutral expression shifted to confusion at the seeming nonsequitur. "What?"

"Yep," he agreed, deliberately misinterpreting his confusion. "Sonic the Hedgehog, world saving hero, can't swim. Can't go near big bodies of water at all, actually. I'm hydrophobic, so anything bigger than a bathtub is..." He shuddered at the thought, then managed to meet Mephiles' eyes again. "Kind of embarrassing, but there's not much I can do about it. So I work around it. And that's okay. It's okay to be scared of something silly. You can't control how you feel."

(Okay, so maybe he was borrowing from someone else's speech, but the point was to make Mephiles more comfortable.)

Mephiles looked at him for a long moment. Finally, he nodded. "I could use more colorful things in my room."

Sonic grinned. "Alright! I agreed to listen to Tails' technobabble for a bit, but after that what say we head over?"

"That would be fine."

Tails came back into the room and returned to his console, grumbling quietly. He was too grumpy about his burnt spinach puffs to notice, but the air in the room had subtly changed, as if some strange sort of understanding had been reached.

xxx

Mephiles jolted awake, breathing heavily (which really sucked without a mouth). It took him a moment to calm down and realize he must have had another nightmare.

Well, nightmare wasn't the best word, based on the single one he could remember. From the times and dates he'd received from Tails, it was likely that they were caused by regressing in his sleep. Hence his inability to remember the actual content of the dreams. But somehow, despite never getting any residual effects during waking regressions, he always got this horrible dread after sleeping ones.

A knock against his door got his attention. "Meph? You awake in there?"

He blinked, mildly taken aback by the unexpected voice. He knew Silver had an almost supernatural instinct for when the others were having a rough night, but that wasn't Silver's voice. "Uh... yeah?"

The door creaked open, and Sonic's head poked through, just visible in the night light's glow. "Hey. Had a feeling you might appreciate some company. Was I right?"

"I suppose I'm not against it," Mephiles said, resisting the urge to curl deeper into the blankets.

"Cool. Oh, uh, Shads and Silv are here too, you okay with them coming in with me?"

That was... surprising. Silver he could understand, having received a couple unexpected midnight visits before, but Shadow? Why would he even care? "...Yes. They can come in too."

Sonic pushed the door open and quick stepped his way to the bedside table, half sitting on the edge. Silver entered more slowly and settled on the end of the bed with only a brief glance at the light in the corner. Shadow left the door half open behind him and hovered uncertainly just inside the room. Mephiles didn't make any move to help him with that. He wasn't entirely sure what to say, even if he had the energy to care.

"Do you remember what happened?" Silver asked. He didn't elaborate; there was no need. All but one time he'd come to Mephiles' room at night had been for a similar reason. (One thing they all had in common. Nightmares were a regular thing in their house.)

Mephiles shook his head, succumbing to the urge to pull his knees to his chest and wrap his arms around them. "No. Regression. Not that knowing it helps."

Sonic looked confused, a look that only intensified as he realized nobody else seemed surprised. "Say what?"

"Regressions while I'm asleep cause unpleasant dreams," Mephiles said when the others didn't speak up. "At least, I assume they're unpleasant, since I wake up feeling awful afterward, but I never remember what happened during the dreams."

Sonic winced sympathetically, but said no more. Mephiles wondered if it was because he realized how useless words would be, or if he was just tired.

"Can we stay with you until you fall asleep?" Silver asked, voice soft and gentle, as though afraid of spooking him. Not that such a fear was entirely unfounded.

But at the moment, Mephiles found he wouldn't mind the company. "If you want. But only if you stop hovering. You're making me tired just looking at you." He glared at Sonic and Shadow, albeit without any real malice.

Sonic held up his hands in surrender, moving to take Silver's spot as the telekinetic rolled to Mephiles' other side. "Alright, didn't want to invade your space. Shadow, you coming? There's a reason we got big beds."

Shadow turned to Mephiles, an unspoken question in his eyes. Mephiles hesitated for half a second (not least because he didn't think he'd given Shadow much reason to doubt; clearly he needed to work on his attitude) before nodding. "There's space, if you're alright with being a little cramped."

The dark hedgehog nodded and unfolded his arms, making his way to the edge of the bed. Sonic apparently deemed his pace too slow and yanked him down with a firm but gentle grip. The following untangling left them in a slightly haphazard row, with Silver against the wall, Mephiles beside him, Sonic on Mephiles' other side and Shadow on the far edge. Sonic and Shadow's shoulders were overlapping a bit, and Silver pressed back into the wall to give Mephiles room, but they managed to fit without being too horribly squished.

Silver leaned down and pulled a sheet over all of them. "Think you'll be able to sleep alright like this?" he asked, just to be sure.

Mephiles pondered for a moment, then nodded, trying not to poke anyone with his quills as he did. "This is fine." Besides, with the solid silence coming from the outside edge of the bed, he had a sneaking suspicion he wasn't the only one who'd been having a rough night.

Speaking of. "How did all of you end up coming over here?"

Silver shrugged as if to say 'same way I always know,' which was as valid an answer as any.

"Had a feeling," Sonic said, "and I trust my gut to know what's best."

Shadow took a moment to respond. When he did, it was with a simple, "You move a lot when you're having a nightmare." He kicked at the air to demonstrate, making the bed rock and bump into the wall that separated their rooms.

Ah. That explained it. "I'm sorry for disturbing you then."

"Don't be. I'd rather be awake right now."

There was a brief pause. Then-

"Today's supposed to be one of your sleeping nights?" Sonic asked, sitting up to stare at Shadow. Mephiles couldn't see his expression at this angle but his tone said enough.

Shadow failed to conveniently sink into the mattress, though not for lack of trying. "Well-"

"Nope, enough chit chat, we're sleeping. And you have the nerve to mother hen me for my sleep habits."

"In general you need more rest than-"

"Shush. Sleep time."

Mephiles could feel Silver shaking from repressed laughter and found himself suppressing a snort of his own.


	13. Indefinite

**One day I'll get back to Saturday updates. Really.**

* * *

Mephiles stood in the shade of a tree, watching curiously as the robot in front of him skillfully destroyed Eggman's robots. Though perhaps skillfully wasn't the word when his main technique consisted of raining countless bullets on anything that walked in front of him. Still, there was a strange sort of grace to the complete and utter destruction Omega cast upon his enemies.

Then again, maybe Mephiles just had strange standards. Wouldn't be the first time.

When the last robot fell, Omega turned to face his observer. "Designation Mephiles. State your business."

Mephiles almost melted back into the shadows without a word to avoid the unexpected confrontation, but decided against it. Rouge had said Omega was briefed on his new status(translation, knew he wasn't their enemy), so there shouldn't be any danger. And he owed the robot a conversation at least after spying on him. So instead of teleporting away, he shrugged and leaned against the tree. "I wondered what all the noise was. When I saw you, I decided to stay and watch."

Omega didn't move, making it hard to tell what he was thinking. "Is my destruction of Doctor Eggman's machines satisfying to watch?"

"I suppose. You certainly have a way with your weaponry."

The robot emitted a quiet whirring noise. "Was that an attempt at humor?"

Mephiles blinked. "Pardon?"

"Rouge has been teaching me to recognize humor. I interpreted your statement as a possible attempt at humor, since I fought you when we were enemies. Was I mistaken?"

It took a moment for Mephiles to recover from his momentary confusion. "Er. I wasn't trying to make a joke, no. I wouldn't have thought bringing the past up would be funny." It certainly wasn't funny to him, so doing so wouldn't have occurred to him. At least, not in this context.

"I have no standard formula for response to a joke. But complete annihilation of my enemies is, as Rouge would say, very funny."

"..." Mephiles shook his head a bit. "Alright then. It's nice to meet you properly, now that we aren't enemies."

"I agree. But if you try to hurt Shadow or Rouge, we will be enemies again."

"I'll keep that in mind." He nodded in farewell, then headed on his way, speculating on where he could go that wouldn't lead to more unplanned company. He still had some thinking to do.

XXX

Silver yelled a greeting as he entered Tails' house, following the response to the lab. He noted the fox busily working at something while Knuckles looked irritated and impatient. Not unusual. But there was one aspect of the scene that surprised him.

"Meph isn't here?" Silver asked.

The look Tails gave him was equally surprised. "I thought he was home or with one of you guys."

"Nope. Haven't seen him all day. I figured this was the most likely place after that, but..."

Knuckles growled, catching both their attention. "Why does nobody listen when I say we need to watch him?"

Tails looked blankly at him, then turned to Silver, tails curling around him almost protectively. "I can check the location of his com, if that would help. He usually keeps it off but my main console has an override that..."

He trailed off as Silver shook his head, pulling out his com. "Nah. I'll shoot him a message. It might have been better to do that in the first place, but what if's aren't good for much." He finished typing and pressed send, ignoring Knuckles' venomous glare. A moment later, he got a response.

 _S: hey, where are you?_

 _M: on top of a skyscraper. downtown. why?_

 _S: just wondered, haven't seen you today. also knuckles is mad again._

Silver cursed internally after hitting send. That was probably the last thing Mephiles needed to hear. He stressed about the echidna situation enough already, not that he'd ever admit it. Heck, Knuckles was half the reason they'd decided not to mention the regressions to anyone who didn't already know.

He was startled out of his thoughts as a video call request popped up on the screen. Curious, he accepted.

Mephiles' disgruntled visage filled the small screen. "As you can see, I am indeed atop a skyscraper," he said, the whistling wind making his words ever so slightly harder to understand. "Hopefully this is satisfactory as proof."

"Seems fine to me," Silver said, restraining his amusement as Knuckles' grumbling took on a more embarrassed tone in the background.

"Excellent. I expect to be back in time for dinner, but no need to wait if I'm not." A half second's pause. "And Silver?"

The hedgehog in question blinked. "Yeah?"

"Thank you." Mephiles sent him one of those odd crinkling smiles, then signed off.

Silver wasn't sure what he was being thanked for, but decided not to question it. Meph was happy and safe. That was all that mattered.

XXX

Sonic entered the kitchen early one morning to find Mephiles sitting at the table, stirring what might have been cereal if it hadn't been sitting in milk for so long. "Uh... need me to leave so you can finish?"

"No, I'm done."

He nodded and turned to the fridge, keeping half an eye on Mephiles as he poured a cup of juice and put jam on a slice of bread. "Everything okay?"

Mephiles sighed and pushed the bowl away. "How do you handle doing the same thing every day? It feels somewhat... pointless."

Sonic shrugged as he took a seat, taking a bite of bread and swallowing before responding. "I guess I don't have much of a problem with it. Might be because I spend a lot of the day sleeping when I have free time, but who knows." He paused. "Say, wanna go egg smashing? That helps cheer me up on down days."

There was a brief pause, and Sonic wondered if Mephiles might actually turn him down. But eventually the dark being nodded. "Alright. Seems like as good a use of time as any."

"Yeah. And it'll have us out of the house when Shadow opens his closet."

"...You know what, don't explain that. Please. I will not be an accomplice."

XXX

"Whoa!" Sonic yelped, dodging back as a robotic fist slammed into the ground where he'd been standing. He spin dashed the robot responsible into spare parts, then turned to check on his companion. "How you holding up, Meph?"

"Just fine," Mephiles responded, using his own variations of attacks to take down their adversaries. Spin dashing just wasn't as practical for him, lacking Sonic and Shadow's speed as he was.

"Alright, talk to you later!" And with that, Sonic jumped back into the fray.

The next few minutes were filled with enough bot fighting to hold Sonic's attention, but eventually the swarm ended, and he took a moment to relax, breathing labored but victorious. "Well that sure was some fight, eh Meph? ...Meph?" It was then that he realized his friend had vanished.

Eggmanish laughter flooded out of hidden speakers. "Ohohoho! You should keep better track of your allies, Sonic. Now that I've captured him, you're on your own!"

Sonic raised a brow, unimpressed. He pulled out his com, turned it on, and typed out a quick message.

 _S: leave part of the base for me?_

 _M: Don't worry, I'll wait in this cell until you arrive or need help. It's surprisingly comfortable in here. Have fun._

He shrugged and tucked it away again, though he left it on in case Meph changed his mind. Not because a cell could keep him contained, but to make meeting up easier. Teleportation was not a precise skill as they had discovered.

Maybe an hour later, he'd cleared enough robots to reach the base. He sent Mephiles a quick message before moving on with the actual destroying the base part. Might as well get it over with.

When he reached the corner that held the cells, Mephiles was laying on his back in a cell that was really rocking the medieval aesthetic. By which he meant it only had iron bars, plus what appeared to be cuffs bolted to the walls, one set locked despite being unoccupied.

"He tried to handcuff me, but he put the cuffs on too tight so I removed them," Mephiles said simply, continuing to stare at the ceiling without otherwise acknowledging Sonic's presence.

Sonic snorted. "Right then. Aren't you worried about getting sick? These floors aren't that clean."

"I'm only semi-organic. I'm more likely to get sick than Shadow, but it's still not likely." Nonetheless, he stood, dusted himself off, and phased through the bars. "Now. Time to finish up?"

"Yep. I betcha Egghead has his usual doomsday robot around here somewhere."

They raced around the building, smashing bots and trading one-liners (mostly directed at each other, seeing as smashing the bots wasn't really hard enough to inspire anything good) until they reached an oversized door. Sonic stepped to one side and bowed. "After you, my friend."

Mephiles rolled his eyes and kicked the door. It creaked slowly open much to both of their amusement.

"Well that was sure something straight out of a cheesy horror movie," Mephiles said, entering the room as Sonic sniggered behind him. "Except just a bit too high tech."

"Eggman should've had the door open on its own, that would have been perfect," Sonic said. Then he glanced around and grimaced at the empty room. "Shoot. Meph, don't move."

Mephiles gave him a confused look, but didn't move to protest his strange request. Then the lights turned off.

"Welcome," boomed a loud voice, "to my magnificent evil lair. I hope you've enjoyed your stay because it will be your last!"

The lights came up, revealing yet another generic giant robot that was at least a little tougher looking than the generic giant robots sprinkled liberally across an equally generic adventure landscape. Mephiles had to admit he was impressed with Sonic and Eggman's tenacity - doing this so often would have left him bored to the point of quitting long ago. But for the moment he was less focused on that odd admiration and more on clinging to the hand Sonic had helpfully placed on his upper arm. And slowing his pulse to a more normal rate. That would be nice too.

Eggman's cackling broke off abruptly as he realized neither of his opponents were paying him much attention. "Hello? I'm up here?"

"One sec," Sonic called, barely glancing over. "Meph?"

"I'm fine," he said, though his heavy breathing didn't sound fine. And that was only stating the obvious. "Focus on the robot."

Sonic nodded, albeit reluctantly. He released Mephiles' arm and fell into a fighting stance, signature grin falling into place. "Time to crack this egg!"

It didn't take long to destroy the robot. It was obviously not Eggman's best work, but none of them expected otherwise. They were still between major plots after all.

"Meet you at home?" Sonic said, though he didn't make it as much of a question as he usually would have.

Mephiles nodded, not speaking a word as he melted into the shadows. Sonic turned to head on his way as well, ironically by the slower route. But it beat shadow travel as far as he was concerned.

XXX

When the door opened, Mephiles didn't even look up from where he'd perched on the back of the couch to see what had caused the sound. So he was caught off guard when a large, fluffy blanket hit him in the head.

He spluttered a bit, clawing the soft fabric away to glare at Sonic. "What was that for?"

"You're still shaking," Sonic said simply. "Sit down. I'll get you a hot chocolate."

There was a brief stare off, but rattled as he was, Mephiles didn't have the energy to resist. He moved over to sit on the couch, taking the hint and wrapping himself in the blanket. The fluffy texture was remarkably soothing. He shuffled his feet, awkwardly bending his knees to his chest without putting his shoes on the couch cushions and huddling in the warm softness, humming something mindless under his breath.

Sonic came over with two mugs of warm beverage. "It's just packets of instant, I'm not doing Silver's fancy thing, but what matters is that it's warm."

Mephiles made a noncommittal sound and accepted the drink, careful not to meet Sonic's eyes. The hero's gaze softened with understanding. "Hey," he said, taking a seat beside Mephiles - not close enough to be touching, but close enough to communicate his presence. "It's okay. You can't control how you feel, and there's nothing shameful in it."

"I know." And his tone made it clear that he did. Even so...

"There's a difference between knowing it's okay and believing it?" Sonic guessed, smiling wryly when Mephiles nodded. "I get that. Maybe we can help each other with it. Be a reminder when it's hard to believe. How's that sound?"

Mephiles was silent for a long moment, gaze fixed on his shoes. Then he nodded ever so slightly. "I think I can do that."

* * *

 **Sorry to those who'd like to see more interactions with Silver and Mephiles, but I promise there's a valid reason. You won't like it, but it's valid. ;)**


	14. Intentions

**What's this? A chapter getting out on time? What a concept! That said, this feels kind of messy for reasons I can't really place, so let me know if anything feels obviously wrong. I'm recovering from a nasty cold so there's a pretty good chance I missed something.**

 **On an entirely different note, if I made an ask blog connected to this story would anyone follow/ask stuff? Let me know here, or go poke me on tumblr at lessinkmoregraphite. I'll probably say something there if I end up doing anything.**

 **So let me know, and enjoy the story!**

* * *

Shadow was watching TV at home when he felt the couch shift next to him. He didn't bother looking up, being engrossed in the documentary currently playing and not too interested in the new presence. If they wanted his attention, they'd have to ask for it.

"I heard you were wondering about my ability to use chaos."

He turned, surprised by the unexpected speaker, only to meet slit-pupiled lime green eyes. Mephiles sat against the opposite arm rest, one foot casually crossed over the opposite knee and cheek resting on his fist. His expression could only be described as smug, though how he managed it without a mouth Shadow wasn't quite sure.

"That's correct," Shadow said, realizing a response was probably expected of him. "Are you...?"

"There's not much to tell," Mephiles said with a shrug. "I never used chaos before my sort of reformation, so it's not something I have experience with. Which probably answers your question, not that you really needed me to help with something so simple. After all, you're a professional when it comes to collecting information, isn't that right?"

Shadow narrowed his eyes, detecting subtle traces of mockery in Mephiles' words. "By some standards, perhaps," he said, "but that hardly helps when only one person knows the information I seek. In this case, you."

"Shame. Collecting the information is sometimes easier when you tell people what you want it for, you know?" He raised a pointed brow after the comment.

"Where are you going with this?" Shadow allowed his tone to shift toward a growl, fully aware that Mephiles' behavior was intentionally provocative when regressed, but not caring all that much.

"Nowhere particular," he said with a shrug, though the glint in his eyes said otherwise. "Then again, neither are you."

"You're welcome to provide further information," Shadow said pointedly. "It would certainly simplify matters. But you're not likely to do so that easily. Correct?"

"Of course not. Despite my other self's attitude, we are still enemies."

"If you're so insistent on seeing it that way, I suppose I can't change your mind."

Mephiles paused, hand falling from his face. "Sorry?"

Shadow didn't so much as blink. "I have trouble believing you're truly acting as our enemy if you insist on bothering us. Wouldn't it be better to convince us you're an ally, then strike when you get the chance?"

Mephiles stared at him, then narrowed his eyes. "An interesting theory. One I will neither confirm nor deny. Farewell."

Shadow waited for him to vanish, then turned his documentary back on.

XXX

Mephiles watched Tails work in silence, settled comfortably on a backward chair. The fox was more than a little uncomfortable with the prickling feeling of eyes on him but was more satisfied with his victory regarding the counter debate. Said victory being that Mephiles still acknowledged his request to not sit on the counter while regressed.

Anyway, the silence was preferable to the nonsense Mephiles usually spewed at them while regressed. He'd mostly quit it around Tails after it became clear that he wasn't getting a reaction, and the fox was actually grateful to those anti-bullying lectures from when he was smaller. The fact was, nothing he'd said or done was more than irritating, which while odd was kind of reassuring. His first reaction to the regressions had been distinct unease, if not outright fear - if Mephiles was turning into their enemy again, what might that mean for them? But as far as he could tell nothing bad was happening. He wasn't about to let Mephiles out of his sight during a regression, but his concern about being alone with the hopefully reformed villain was somewhat alleviated.

The door banged open in the other room. "Hey Tails!"

Oh no. Knuckles. Tails gave Mephiles a meaningful look and mimed zipping his lips, optimistically interpreting the other's blank stare as agreement, before returning the greeting. "Hey Knuckles! We're in the lab."

"When are you not?" Knuckles said with a note of good-natured grumpiness. He paused when he noticed Mephiles. "Oh. You're here too?"

"I am," Mephiles said, neglecting to offer any further details.

Tails noticed Knuckles' dissatisfaction with the response and quickly moved to intervene. "He sometimes comes to watch me work. Anyway, if you're checking on the progress of that project you asked me to work on, I've not gotten much further than last time."

"Nah, just stopping by to say hi." He squinted suspiciously at Mephiles. "Something's different about you."

Mephiles shrugged and leaned his chin against the chair back. "Exhaustion? I haven't slept very well this past week."

"Nah, it's not that. Are you... wearing contacts? Cause I swear it looks like your eyes are glowing. And kind of snakey."

Tails was becoming increasingly concerned about this conversation. They'd agreed not to talk about regressions, but if Knuckles kept pushing...

Mephiles seemed to not have quite the same concerns. He sat up and narrowed his eyes at Knuckles. "Why don't you just come out and say it? Subtlety is not your strong suit."

They had a glare-off for a long moment. Surprisingly, Knuckles' patience seemed to snap first. "You've been remembering things," he growled, "and I've seen you like this a few times. It's linked, and you know it. Why haven't you mentioned it?"

"He's not the only one who knows," Tails said, shrinking back as Knuckles' attention snapped to him. "It's, uh, me, Sonic, Silver, and Shadow all know. So we can keep an eye out. It's all safe, you know?" He winced internally at his wording, but Mephiles didn't look bothered. Rather, he looked annoyed, but that seemed more directed at Knuckles than him.

Said echidna appeared to be putting two and two together and not liking the result he was getting. "Wait. Then it is dangerous?"

"Hardly," Mephiles said in a bored tone. "I'm slowly regaining access to sealed memories, so they thought it was best if someone keep an eye out. After all, regaining memories of the adventure wasn't exactly easy on anyone when you lot did it, correct?"

"I guess not," Knuckles said, looking like he was buying the story... until he saw how nervous Tails looked and his suspicions all came back. "That's not all, is it?"

Tails looked at Mephiles helplessly. The dark being heaved a tired sigh. "You should really work on your poker face, fox. It's bound to cause trouble one of these days if you can't learn to keep a secret properly. And no, that's not all. But the four of them decided they had the situation under control, and alarming the rest of you would be pointless. Not that I much care."

"Are you going to say what else is going on or not?!"

Tails had curled in on himself at Mephiles' comment, but uncurled a bit at Knuckles' frustrated response. No need for him to leave without correct information if they'd already come this far anyway. "He's regressing. At least, we call it regression. It's when all his memories come back for a little bit and his personality sort of reverts to how it was on our adventure."

Knuckles tensed up, looking at Mephiles with no small amount of apprehension. "And you just let him run around like that?"

"There's frequently someone around when I regress," Mephiles pointed out, voice a slow drawl. "Besides, there's hardly enough time for me to do much of anything, even if I wanted to. These things have never even lasted a full hour."

"He's right," Tails said when Knuckles glanced at him for confirmation. "It seems to be caused by those energy spikes I was measuring, and none of them last very long. And it's not like he spends much time on his own." He pretended not to notice Mephiles rolling his eyes behind Knuckles' back. Okay, maybe his information was out of date there, but he'd given enough away as it was.

Knuckles looked doubtful, but seemed more or less appeased by that explanation. "Alright then. As long as you're careful, I don't see why it should be a big deal. But you oughta tell the others."

"Not until we have more information." Tails made his voice as firm as possible for that statement. He didn't want to spread this around until he was sure it was accurate and not just scaremongering. All he could do at the moment was make them scared of what Mephiles might do, which wouldn't help anyone.

At least Knuckles seemed willing to accept that response. "Well... okay. But you had better be careful."

"Believe me, I will be."

With one last glare at Mephiles, he turned and stomped out of the lab. A moment later the front door slammed open and shut.

"Well that went well," Mephiles said, and promptly passed out before Tails could ask whether he was joking. The fox sighed and went to adjust him to a more comfortable position. He always complained of feeling tense after a regression, no need to make it worse.

Mephiles resettled, Tails turned to the task of notifying the others. Better they find out now than be surprised later.

XXX

Mephiles woke slowly, noting he was now on Tails' couch with his usual detachment. After a point, finding himself in new locations with a blank in his memory became less concerning than it probably should be. He focused instead on stretching out, since as per usual he was tense as heck. Honestly, his other self could stand to relax a bit.

Then again, if he was right about _why_ he was so tense... well, he didn't think about that often. After all, the more often he thought it, the more likely he was to remember it while regressed. And that wouldn't be good under any circumstances. Especially if he was right.

Ritual stretching completed, Mephiles stood and headed for the lab, where he could hear several voices he'd been trying and failing to ignore. While he wasn't exactly eager to get involved with whatever conversation was going on in there... well, it was fortunate he hadn't copied Blaze's form or he'd be dead several times over.

He paused and leaned against the doorway, waiting for someone to notice him. Though it seemed like it might take a bit if he didn't speak up. Sonic and Shadow were locked in a stare-off for some reason while Tails watched, fidgeting uncertainly.

After a moment, Shadow nodded. "Very well then. Hopefully Silver arrives soon, though, because I'm very curious about what could be important enough to call us all here on such short notice."

"I'm a bit curious myself," Mephiles said, deciding it was high time he made his presence known. He didn't especially want to eavesdrop but none of them were paying much attention to their surroundings.

Sonic in particular jumped a good foot in the air and whirled to face him, wide-eyed shock fading into a wavery grin. "Oh hey Meph. Uh, how much of that did you hear?"

"Just Shadow's comment after your staring match. I only woke up a couple minutes ago."

"You were regressed for half an hour," Tails informed him, "and passed out for a little less than that. Shadow helped me carry you to the game room because I'm not entirely sure you could breathe in the position you were in. And you should definitely hear this too."

The door opening caught everyone's attention, so they were all looking up when Silver entered. The telekinetic glanced around and rolled his eyes. "Right. Still the last one to arrive I see. So what's up? Your message sounded pretty urgent."

"It kind of is," Tails said, falling into a more serious demeanor. "Knuckles came by while Mephiles was regressed earlier. He made some pointed comments about him seeming different and, well, now he knows about regressions. He's not gonna tell anyone else, but I thought everyone should know."

Silver frowned. "That's... not good, but not as bad as I'd thought. Couldn't you have told us by message?"

Tails shrugged. "I needed help carrying Mephiles. He kind of passed out sitting on a chair backward. And, uh..." He turned to Sonic, looking somewhere between sheepish and forlorn. "I feel like we haven't talked much recently, so I thought maybe we could all hang out for a bit?"

Several indistinct emotions chased each other across Sonic's face before he grinned and leaned forward to ruffle Tails' head fur. "Sure thing, buddy! You know I'm always happy to spend time with you, just say the word."

Tails mock-scowled and batted his hands away, but he was grinning as well.

Mephiles smiled a bit as Sonic began plotting potential activities with Tails, dragging Silver into it and trying to add Shadow to their planning circle. Fortunately that particular lost cause allowed Mephiles to fade into the background and just watch the others play-arguing.

He could worry about Knuckles some other time. For the moment he wanted to enjoy spending a little time with everyone.

* * *

 **So last week I learned sleep deprived me is evil. That said, have the food for thought that is this chapter.**


	15. Compromise

**Due to a total lack of interest, I'm gonna pass on the ask blog idea. An ask blog without followers wouldn't be much fun for anyone. That said, I may upload art to my tumblr eventually, but we'll see. One other thing: I really enjoy the number of ways you can apply this title to this chapter. Always fun when that happens.  
**

 **With that said, enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

"Ha _ha_! Too slow, Egghead!"

"Curse you, hedgehog!"

Mephiles rolled his eyes as he pushed through the crowd. Even without directions and the visual of flailing robotic limbs over people and shorter buildings, the sound of overused phrases would have led him right to the fight. He'd rather be home reading a book or out relaxing somewhere, but Sonic was apparently in the mood to have a partner in their regular Eggman fight and the others were busy elsewhere. Which meant he got stuck helping the hyperactive idiot (Shadow's words, not his, honest).

Of course, he couldn't do much until he got through all these onlookers. Honestly, they were lucky these battles weren't too dangerous. If this were a serious fight, someone would definitely have gotten hurt by now.

Finally he reached the front of the crowd, only to be blocked by a police officer. "Excuse me sir, but it's dangerous to get any closer."

He gave the officer a flat look. "It's dangerous to be even this close. In any case, I'm with them."

"Sorry sir, but unless you're on the list I can't let you through." A pause. "Say, weren't you there for a recent attack?"

"Unfortunately yes. I participated in halting it. Can I pass now?"

"Afraid not. Rules are rules. Although..." The officer winked. "If you're supposed to be on the list, I won't be able to stop you if you try to get past, now will I?"

"True." Mephiles melted away, reappearing by a lamppost past the police barrier. "Why did nobody mention a list to me before I came out here?"

Sonic hopped back, turning to him. "Ah, right! Forgot about that. Everyone else is already on it."

Mephiles watched him dodge a light bullet rain. "Next time try not to forget. Being stopped by police concerned about civilian safety is irritating."

"Yeah, okay, you gonna join in or not?" He did a cartwheel over the robot's shoulders, making it hit itself in the head almost hard enough to crack the semi-clear dome on top.

Mephiles took on a pondering expression. "I don't know, you seem to have this under control. And technically I'm not supposed to be out here, so..."

"Stuff the passive aggressive thing and move your butt!"

That got an eye roll, but Mephiles was more amused than irritated as he dashed in. He ducked a flailing limb, brushing fingers lightly against its underside and gluing it to the ground with his shadows. A bit more dodging around had enough limbs immobilized for Sonic to spin-dash straight through the thing's torso, leaving a sparking hole as it fell over.

Sonic skidded to a stop at Mephiles' side, grinning and holding up a hand. "Nice job out there!"

Mephiles blinked for a moment, puzzled, before registering the gesture and hesitantly returning the high five. "You too."

A creaking noise pulled their attention back to the robot as it dragged itself upright despite the gaping hole in its chassis.

Sonic sighed. "Great. Multi phase enemy. Ready for this, Meph? Second phase is always harder!"

"I am aware. And yes."

"Then let's go!" The speedster followed this cry by promptly springing forward, leading the notably faster limbs on a wild chase around the machine's center in an attempt to tangle them up.

Mephiles crouched slightly, preparing to join him - then froze, eyes fixed sightlessly on the ground.

Sonic and the robot noticed this at the same time. Unfortunately, at that moment Sonic was stuck holding back one of its limbs. His eyes widened in panic as he saw one of the robot's free arms lash toward Mephiles. "Meph!"

One of Mephiles' arms shot up. The robotic limb froze, encased in darkness for an instant before crumpling in on itself and falling to the ground. Mephiles raised his head slowly, arm falling just as slowly to his side. "You know, this whole activity seems rather frivolous. Do none of you have anything better to do with your time?"

Sonic dropped out of the fighting stance he'd assumed after the unexpectedly violent attack, assuming a more relaxed pose. "Tell that to Egghead. You regressed again?"

"It was directed at him as much as you. Not that he seems to have noticed." Mephiles sent a disparaging glance at the unmoving robot next to them. "But yes, I regained my full memory. Seeing as you insist on calling it that. Though you're acting less concerned about it than your companions."

Sonic shrugged, eyeing the robot with concealed unease. That wasn't enough to stop it, if it had a second engine, so why wasn't it moving? "I'm not going to get all worked up over it. You're Mephiles either way. Facets of the same person."

"More like he is a facet of me. I am the whole, and he is a mere part."

Sonic's smile didn't falter. "Okay. If you say so."

Mephiles eyed him suspiciously, seeming to conclude something after a moment. "Then if we're clear-"

A robotic claw slammed down on Mephiles, creating a metal cage around him as the robot leaned in. "A-ha! So your original personality still exists, does it?"

The attempted threat garnered only a raised brow. "You do realize that I have both teleported and crushed one of these arms you though to cage me with in the last few minutes, correct?"

"...It's symbolic. And that's not the point! Why are you hanging with Mr. Goody Two-Shoes over there? Change of heart?"

"Hey Eggman, he's-"

"I don't see that I'm obligated to tell you anything," Mephiles said, cutting off Sonic before he could finish saying much the same thing. "Now are we here to chat, or destroy your latest unimpressive creation?"

"Wh- how dare-!"

Sonic choked back a snort as Eggman continued to splutter. "Hey, good point! Meph, countdown to final blow in three, two-"

"Wait just a-"

"One!" He smashed the clear head, bouncing out of the way so Mephiles could safely tear apart the inside. This time, the robot fell over and stayed collapsed.

"Nice lines," Sonic said, grinning at Mephiles, hand again extended for a high five.

Mephiles looked at him for a moment before his expression abruptly shuttered. "You forget, I'm not your friend. I just happen to dislike Eggman more than you." He made a quick exit into the shadows.

Sonic blinked, looking around briefly before concluding that yeah, Mephiles had just vanished while regressed. He shrugged and turned to wave at the onlookers before heading home, firmly pushing any worries aside. Mephiles hadn't tried anything while regressed before. It would be fine.

XXX

"Hey there."

Tails looked up and grinned. "Hey Sonic! Uh." His smile faltered briefly. "Wasn't Mephiles with you?"

Sonic shrugged, leaning against the wall as casually as if he'd always been there and not run in faster than the eye could see. "He regressed mid-fight and teleported out."

Tails' eyes went wide. "Is he okay?"

"Yeah, but that robot sure isn't. He had way better control of his shadow powers."

"Interesting... but where is he now?"

"Dunno. He teleported, so could be anywhere."

"True." The fox's eyes narrowed as he studied Sonic's face, nodding at some inward decision. "I'll see where he is."

Sonic frowned, but didn't comment as Tails tapped a few buttons, pulling up a map. He checked something on a smaller screen, then turned to face Sonic again. "He's in Tropical Jungle. Could you go check on him?"

Sonic scratched his ear, looking uneasily at the screen. "I dunno, Tails. Maybe we should give him some space."

"Sonic..."

He tried not to flinch at the tone Tails used, pasting on a grin. "Okay, okay! No need for theatrics, I'm going."

XXX

Sonic skidded to a stop on a platform not far above the water, looking down with more than a little amusement. "Having fun there?"

Mephiles cracked an eye open, not bothering to sit up from where he lay sprawled on the back of a large turtle. "I was until you interrupted me. What do you need?"

"Just checking in. You vanished before we got a chance to chat."

"Well you aren't going to get a chance now. I'm busy."

"I can see that." Sonic hopped over a platform, trying to stay in range of the slowly swimming behemoth. "Think you'll be back before dark?"

"How should I know? I'll only be around for a few more minutes. Let me experience them in peace."

"Alright, lord grumpy. You could give Shadow a run for his money in the extra angry growling department. See ya!"

Mephiles returned to his relaxing once Sonic had vanished, but not before releasing a snort that almost sounded amused.

XXX

Mephiles arrived at Tails' house to find more activity than he'd really expected. Usually it was much quieter. It really said something for Knuckles' decibel level that even the workshop could be considered quiet when he left.

He was therefore less than enthused to find Knuckles yelling when he arrived back from his trip. Especially since that same loudmouth was the least happy about Mephiles being around in the first place, and seemed to be making another complaint to that effect.

"I'm not saying we kick him out," Knuckles growled angrily. "I'm saying we need to watch him. That's the complete opposite of kicking him out. And leaving him on his own while regressed is a horrible idea."

"Well, so's the fashion statement you rocked last Halloween, but-"

" _This has nothing to do with that!_ "

"I'd be interested to see that fashion statement," Mephiles informed Sonic as he entered the room. "And while I won't oppose Knuckles' point, do you really want to spend however long watching someone sleep on a turtle?"

Knuckles' expression went from angry to completely flat at a speed that would put Sonic to shame. "What."

"I woke up lying on a turtle's back. I may not be able to recall what my counterpart was doing, but I can put context clues together."

"Sounds right," Sonic agreed. "He was just chilling when I left. And that wasn't super long ago, so he can't have done much between then and now."

"You can't be sure about that. He can teleport, for all you know he went somewhere as soon as you left then came back before he turned back!"

Mephiles rolled his eyes and turned to Tails. "Those machines you had us distribute allow you to track the energy surges once they appear, correct?"

"Huh? Uh, yeah. Why?"

"Could you create a program to notify you when I am in one of those locations, so you won't need to check my location personally, but can track whether I move too far away? You can even send someone to check the first few times, if you feel the need."

Knuckles scowled. "What's stopping you from taking your com off?"

"I could message him periodically," Tails said tentatively. "That way he can't risk leaving it behind without us finding out."

Mephiles nodded at the fox, then returned his cool gaze to Knuckles. "Will that satisfy you?"

Knuckles still looked unhappy, but couldn't seem to find anything concrete to complain about. "...Fine. But if you slip up even once, we get a stronger system."

"Understandable."

The echidna took a last moment to glare at him before stomping out in a huff. Mephiles watched him, restrained neutrality tainted by the slightest bit of disappointment. Just enough that Sonic could see it. "Something wrong?"

"For a moment I hoped his distrust was more directed toward my regressed self," he said. "But I suppose that was too good to be true."

Sonic and Tails exchanged a look, then grimaced. They knew first-hand how impossible it was to predict Knuckles' reaction to anything suspicious. He didn't exactly have the best track record with being tricked. As nice as it was if this was his attempt to turn over a new leaf, it was a little hard on Mephiles.

After a split second's hesitation, Sonic rested a friendly hand on Mephiles' shoulder. "Don't worry. He'll come around sooner or later."

Mephiles startled a bit, then settled again. "Perhaps. But I'm not holding my breath."

"Yeah, please don't hold your breath, " Tails said, making a tentative attempt at a joke. "Oxygen is kind of important to your health."

Mephiles turned to him, once again surprised by the attempt to comfort him. His surprise quickly relaxed into amusement. "True. But as a semi-organic, perhaps I'd have a better chance."

There was a brief pause, then all three of them burst into laughter. It wasn't that funny, really, but the sudden release of tension did wonders for lifting the mood.

XXX

Silver followed the coordinates Tails gave him surprisingly far, out past many of the nearby zones until he found himself on the other side of some mountains. Fortunately it didn't take him too long as the bird (or in this case hedgehog) flies, since he could go at full speed without worrying about obstacles. He hadn't flown into a telephone pole, despite what the others seemed to think, and wanted to keep it that way. In any case, going at full speed got him there in about fifteen minutes, slower than Sonic or Shadow by a long shot but not half bad for a hedgehog who'd only begun using his powers for extra speed in the last year.

When he finally got there, he was surprised to find a sparkling lake nestled in between two of the taller peaks, hidden by trees and more mountains. Getting closer revealed a small spike of land jutting out into the water with what seemed to be the remains of an old stone building. The sandy land would probably become an island when the thaw came, but for the moment, there was a narrow dry path with occasional puddles dotting the earth.

Silver landed on the dry ground just off the bridge, wondering why Mephiles was hanging around here. For that matter, he wondered how he'd found this place at all.

"That program isn't very useful if it takes this long to follow the coordinates."

The telekinetic startled and looked up, finally seeing Mephiles nestled on top of the wall, beneath what could have been either a second story or some decorative architecture. His dark fur blended well enough with the shadows to render him nearly invisible, especially when approaching from above as Silver had.

Mephiles smirked at his reaction. "Did you really not notice me? For a hero, you aren't especially aware of your surroundings, are you?"

Silver frowned. "Shut up, you're pretty well hidden. And how come you're still regressed?" Since it was obvious from the odd light in his eyes that he hadn't turned back, there seemed to be no need for clarification on that point.

"I couldn't say. It's been less time for me than the alert would indicate, but I didn't bother checking the time. And that's another thing. Tell that fox kit to look into false positives. My counterpart was rather puzzled by that alert for a while before I took over."

That was an interesting bit of information. Silver turned it over in his head for a minute before setting it aside to tell Tails later. He'd have a better idea what, if anything, that meant. "Alright. Mind if I stick around for a bit?"

Mephiles shrugged and leaned back against the wall. "Be my guest. Just don't expect me to be a good conversation partner."

Silver nodded, then sat back and leaned against the wall Mephiles was sitting on, stifling a yawn behind his hand. Flying at that rate took a fair bit out of him. Maybe it wouldn't be too bad if he took a few minutes to rest. The grass was soft, the shade so cool and welcoming...

Mephiles leaned out to look down at Silver, then hopped off the wall, landing lightly in the grass beside him. He knelt down, looking at the sleeping hedgehog thoughtfully. After a long moment, he sighed and picked the other up before pulling the both of them through the shadows as smoothly as he could and depositing Silver in his room. He returned to his own room from there, though not before shutting Silver's door, still careful to be as quiet as possible.

* * *

 **Fun fact, working title for this chapter is 'darn it knux'.**


	16. Progression

**Sorry about my lateness. I'm still not super satisfied with this chapter, but hopefully you'll like it. It might be a bit confusing but things will hopefully make more sense soon.**

* * *

Silver woke up in his bed. He took a moment to reorient himself, since the last he could remember was visiting Mephiles in some ruins. Waking in his own room was more than a little unsettling without context, but presumably he'd fallen asleep and Mephiles had taken him back after the regression ended. He really needed to keep better track of his energy usage or one of these days he'd pass out at a critical moment.

But that was something to worry about when he hadn't missed dinner. Silver climbed out of bed and headed downstairs, mentally cataloging what they had available to eat.

He paused on the stairs to let Mephiles pass with an armload of sleeping blue hedgehog. Silver restrained his curiosity for when asking wouldn't wake someone and continued downstairs, fixing a simple but filling breakfast and digging in. He eyed the empty dishes sitting on the table but shrugged it off for the moment.

Mephiles joined him after a minute, clearing away the dishes and taking a seat. "Sonic apparently took a nap at the table. I thought he might sleep better in his own bed."

"I guess it's your job to put us to bed now," Silver joked. "By the way, thanks for that."

Mephiles tilted his head, looking blank. "For what?"

"Taking me back here yesterday. Sorry for falling asleep when I was supposed to be watching you, but I haven't seen you do anything bad while regressed yet."

Mephiles remained still for long enough that Silver began to get worried before nodding. "Of course. I wouldn't just leave you." He glanced at the microwave, eyes narrowing. "Well, not in that case. But I think I should go get a bit of rest. Didn't get much last night."

"That sucks," Silver said. "Hope your nap goes better than your night."

"Me too." He nodded and headed upstairs, ducking into his room and closing the door without a sound

He stood in the middle of the room for a minute, thinking, before turning to study the sticky notes on his desk. Nothing new. Not that he'd expected anything after hearing Silver's story.

With a thoughtful hum, he settled himself in bed. Food for thought or no, he hadn't been lying about not getting enough rest, and he'd rather not follow Sonic's example.

When he woke some time later, he checked the house for everyone else before even glancing at the time. Sonic was still asleep, but the two of them were the only ones home. Unless someone managed to sit still enough that their shadow blended with whatever they were next to.

Snorting at the ridiculous image (mostly because he was pretty sure that wasn't how it worked), he flipped over to his other side to check the time. Not yet noon. Great, he had some time to himself. Plenty of time to go check a thing.

XXX

Sonic yawned, tipping forward a little but jerking upright before he could faceplant in his food. Fortunately nobody was around to notice. Apparently he'd fallen asleep when he tried to get breakfast earlier, but despite someone moving him to his bed, the extra sleep hadn't done much to cure his exhaustion. Frustrating, but not a big deal. He'd be fine once he woke up more.

Once he finished eating, Sonic quickly cleared his dishes and headed out.

He skidded to a stop outside Tails' house - the one near the mystic ruins, not the place in the city. Most of their stuff had been moved over the last several months, but a decent number of photo albums were still out here. It was rare that anyone cared to look at them, with all the most interesting and newest ones more easily available, so there wasn't much need to have them taking up space. That was fine by him; the chances of him running into anyone else here was low.

He was surprised, then, when he went to retrieve the key from its hidden spot under a roof tile, only to find it missing. A quick check revealed the door to be already unlocked.

Puzzled and a bit unnerved, Sonic nonetheless opened the door with his usual confidence and glanced around inside. He blinked in the faint gloom, idly noting the key sitting on the sideboard and wondering why whoever was here hadn't turned on the lights. Then he saw the figure by the bookshelves and understood.

"Hey Meph," he said, striding forward with a more confident grin. "Looking through old photos?"

Mephiles looked up from the album he was examining, placing it back on the shelf at Sonic's approach. "I was curious about some of your adventures. You've certainly had a lot, haven't you?"

"Heh. Guess so." Sonic scratched his nose, glancing away for a moment before restoring eye contact. "But there's a bunch of albums in the lab in town. No need to come all the way out here."

"I suppose not. But here I can look through pictures in relative solitude. Besides, I should know how to get down here on my own for the future."

Sonic nodded understanding. Tails had been making offhand comments about wanting to move back to his larger space now that they'd mostly handled the whole memory deal. Sure, Mephiles was still a big question mark in that respect, but if anything did happen it would be best for Tails to have full access to his equipment. Besides, the fox missed being able to fly the Tornado whenever he felt like it.

They stood in silence for a moment as Mephiles flipped through another album, pausing briefly on a particular page before placing it back on the shelf. He left his hand resting on the book's binding, eyes faced forward. "You know, I really envy you."

Sonic blinked, then grinned. "No surprise there. What for? My eternal awesomeness? My insane coolness?"

"No. For your ability to keep smiling regardless of how you actually feel."

With those last words, the dark being vanished into the shadows, leaving an unnerved hero behind him.

Sonic stared blankly at the spot where he'd been standing for a moment, then sighed and smiled, though his smile had a bit more melancholy to it than usual. He pushed the albums slightly to the side and pulled an album so thin it was more like a folder out of where the book case's edging had concealed it, flipping through empty pages until he reached the back of the book. One slot had a slightly sketchy drawing of everyone who had been on the Soleanna adventure standing together. The other had a picture of most of them, taken shortly after Silver and Blaze had arrived.

He let out a small laugh, tracing a finger across the laminated image as though hypnotized. "Gee, Meph. Way to call a guy out."

Shaking off the strange spell that had taken hold of him, he replaced the folder in its nook and pushed the other albums to cover it again before turning to leave.

Mephiles watched the speedster's departure from his perch on the roof, a spark of something unknown visible in his eyes just before he vanished.

XXX

"Hey Tails," Sonic said as he popped into the lab, apparently not noticing Silver in the corner. Though, with how uncommonly tired he sounded, it wasn't all that shocking.

Tails was too engrossed in his project to notice. "Hey Sonic. Sorry, gotta focus."

"I distracted him last time he tried this," Silver admitted, frowning when Sonic jumped in surprise. "Long day?" he asked, holding back his concern with a milder query than the one he was thinking of. (It was also a bit more polite than 'what the heck is wrong with you?')

Sonic smiled and shrugged, tone carefully kept steady and neutral. "Not really, I'm just a little tired today. You know how it is."

"Yeah, I get that," Silver said, doing his best to mask his worry. There wasn't any point in pushing if Sonic didn't feel like talking about it. He could be as bad as Shadow sometimes. But it left him grasping for a subject change. "Want to head out back so we don't ruin anyone's concentration?"

Tails grumbled something inaudible, which Silver ignored. (He wasn't about to call the fox out on his sleep-induced grumpiness in front of his brother. Youngest team members' unspoken pact.)

"Alright," Sonic said with only a puzzled glance at Tails before waving toward the door. "Not like there's any shortage of things to do."

"True," Silver said, managing a smile and moving to follow. He paused as he felt something buzzing in his quills. Pulling out his com revealed a new message from Mephiles.

 _M: Keep an eye on Sonic._

 _S: Why?_

 _M: He's acting weird._

 _S: Is he ever not acting weird?_

 _M: Just watch him._

Silver sighed and tucked the com away, resolving to at least keep an eye out. After all, Mephiles wasn't wrong. Sonic was behaving strangely.

Still, their sparring match wasn't any different from normal, and Silver didn't think too much of it when Sonic said his goodbyes sooner than usual.

XXX

Sonic ran through zones, colors racing by faster than even he could make out properly. Usually he'd go a little slower - not much, just enough to appreciate the scenery - but today he just needed to run, and run, and -

Oh hey, that was a suspiciously fast black streak over to the right.

He grinned and adjusted his speed slightly to let Shadow join him more easily. It wasn't often they ran into each other during a run, so most likely Shadow had sought him out. Why, he couldn't guess, though he imagined Shadow would share soon enough.

The conversation that followed was conducted in a bizarre combination of hand signs, expressions, and pointed glares (which were not just expressions and definitely required a category of their own). Spoken conversations were a little hard when those talking were moving faster than sound, and Sonic wasn't in the mood to slow down. That said, a spoken version of their conversation would go something like this:

"Sonic."

"Hey Shads."

"Stop calling me that."

"Nah, your reactions are too good. 'Sides, all my friends need nicknames."

"Even the pink hedgehog girl?"

"Eh... she's got one, I just don't use it. Sounded, uh, romantic."

"Hmph. We're getting off topic."

"Was there a topic?"

"Shut up faker."

"I didn't say anything~"

"Stop it. Sonic, we need to talk."

Sonic skidded to a halt and waited as Shadow stopped a good mile further and raced back to him. "We need to talk?" he asked, not entirely sure of his interpretation. The gesture had involved Shadow pointing at both of them, then at his throat. That was the only thing Sonic could think of, unless Shadow was trying to let him know about a sore throat. Which made no sense in an ultimate lifeform that couldn't get sick.

Shadow folded his arms, regarding him seriously. "That's correct."

Sonic blinked at him for a moment, then smiled. Not for the first time in the last few days, it wasn't a happy smile so much as the one he wore when headed into battle. "Okay, Shadow. Let's talk."


	17. Background Image

**What I love about summer vacation: not having any required activities. What I hate: forgetting what day it is. Constantly.**

 **On a more important note, you may notice some scenes that aren't shown here. I might make a separate work for those later if there's interest, but I have a reason for not showing them at the moment. Sorry about that.**

* * *

Silver was more than a little puzzled to find Mephiles sitting on the porch when he got home, but he tried not to let it show. "Uh, hey Meph. What's up?"

The dark being glanced at him, then resumed staring at nothing in particular. "Keeping watch. You may not want to be home."

Before he could question that comment, Silver spotted Sonic jogging up the street. He was beginning to wonder if this was some kind of prank, but discarded that idea when he saw Sonic's expression.

"Hey guys," he said, attempting a smile and giving up almost immediately. "Have you seen-?"

"Shadow isn't here," Mephiles said. "He had some work to do with GUN, so he'll be away for a couple days."

Sonic hissed something under his breath and gave Silver an apologetic look. "I probably won't be home for dinner today. Or tomorrow either."

"We won't send out any search parties," Silver said with what he hoped was a reassuring smile. Sonic returned it with an unsteady smile of his own before turning to head off who knows where. After taking a deep breath, Silver turned to Mephiles. "What's going on?"

"Sonic's an idiot," Mephiles said simply. He shrugged when Silver frowned at the unsatisfactory answer. "They're arguing again."

"Oh," Silver said, instantly understanding. It wasn't uncommon for those two to trip over themselves and end up fighting, but it sucked that it went bad at such an inconvenient moment.

Or maybe it wasn't so inconvenient. "Is Shadow actually on a GUN mission?"

Mephiles shrugged. "He stopped by to pick up a few things and ask me to tell Sonic he was with GUN if he came asking. Make of that what you will."

"You don't think he is, though."

"No."

Silver frowned as he realized Mephiles wasn't going to elaborate. Probably with good reason, since those two rarely liked other people getting involved at times like this, but still. "I hate being out of the loop like this," he grumbled, brushing past Mephiles to go inside.

Mephiles turned away as the door closed behind him and resumed staring into space.

XXX

Silver picked at his food listlessly, painfully aware of the silence that had settled over the house. It wasn't that uncommon for him to end up eating alone, at least before the last month or so, but somehow it felt more uncomfortable when he knew the others weren't out on a casual run or something. Mephiles was upstairs, doing who knows what, still uncomfortable with the idea of eating in front of anyone. Sometimes he'd come sit with Silver anyway on days when they were the only ones home, just to keep him company, but it seemed today was not one of those days.

He sighed and put the rest of his food away, aware he wouldn't eat any more that night. He'd have to cook something the next day, that usually helped his appetite.

Cleanup handled, he headed upstairs and knocked on Mephiles' door. "Don't forget to eat something, you should have the kitchen to yourself now." He waited for a moment but received no reply. "Meph?"

"I heard, I'll get something later."

"Alright." He left it at that, sensing the other's reluctance to interact and not wanting to push. Especially not when they were already both stressed.

XXX

Mephiles woke up in the middle of the night, unsettled but unable to place the cause. He was fairly calm about it, though. By then it had become fairly normal.

So instead of panicking quietly like he had the first few times, he went over his mental checklist. He couldn't remember any nightmares, though that didn't have to mean anything. His light was still plugged in and working (unsurprising now that he knew how to use an outlet properly, but he still liked to check). And the others were...

No, just Silver. Shadow was 'on a GUN mission' and Sonic was out somewhere. Mephiles' mood dimmed further at the memory. But he could worry about that after his list. Silver, check on Silver.

Unsurprisingly, the hedgehog's sleep was clearly fitful and uneasy. Even with the limited awareness he possessed through his companion's shadow, he could feel Silver tossing and turning in his bed, more than was normal for him. Mephiles silently crept out of bed and across the hall, ready to run interference.

 _At least he's still in his bed this time_ , he thought, phasing through the door to avoid creaky hinges. Last time he'd checked on Silver for nightmare patrol he'd had to deal with him insistently rolling out of the bed. Eventually he'd made a blanket nest on the floor, which seemed to soothe him, but it didn't seem like it would be an issue on this occasion.

He sat carefully on the edge of the bed, humming softly. Silver whimpered and curled closer to him without waking up. One ungloved hand just brushed against his leg as the restless hedgehog finally settled into deeper sleep.

It always amazed him that Silver trusted him enough that he relaxed unconsciously at his mere presence. It made sense directed toward their other housemates, but Mephiles had done everything to deserve the distrust, anger, and hurt that should have been thrown his way. Instead, he'd been welcomed by some of the people he'd hurt most, and accepted by most of the rest. As much as it warmed him, he couldn't help feeling like he didn't deserve it. Especially when he couldn't be sure what he might do if he stayed regressed sometime. Especially since he knew his presence was hurting them even now. Shadow and Sonic's dispute was part of that.

After a few minutes, he rose and left the room as softly as possible, which was pretty dang quiet. He needed to at least try to get some rest. Silver was going to be worse off than him in the morning, and helping his companion cope with his friends fighting was the least he could do.

XXX

XXX

The front door opened with a bang, startling Mephiles and Silver enough that one almost dropped a pot and the other fell off the counter. Mephiles sat up, rubbing his head, and peered warily around the island as Silver did the same.

Rouge stomped over to them, plainly seething, and dragging a pained-looking Shadow by the arm. "Apparently this idiot has a death wish," she hissed, yanking Shadow forward.

A second glance was enough to realize that Shadow was more than just a little ruffled. What looked like a bit of dirt, understandable after being on a mission for the last few days, was actually half-dried blood matting the fur in several places. And that was just what was visible against the black.

Silver turned off the stove and stepped forward, first aid knowledge kicking in. "What were you even doing?" he asked, handling Shadow's less damaged arm much more gently than Rouge had as he checked for any unseen injuries. Shadow endured the treatment in silence.

"Ask him," Rouge said with a sharp wave at Shadow. "He never properly explained why we had to visit Eggman's base. I was hoping maybe Sonic could remind him of the recklessness status quo, but he doesn't seem to be around." She trailed off a bit when she saw Mephiles flinch, eyes narrowing further.

"I got what I went there for," Shadow ground out, only serving to return the full force of his partner's ire to him.

"And you still haven't told me what that is!"

"I'll tell you once the fox kit tells me. Until then I'm not sure- hrrk!"

"Sorry!" Silver yelped, pulling his hands away like he was the one in pain. "I can't really see where you're hurt, I swear this happens every time... well, of course it does, but anyway I think we need the big first aid kit. Are you good to go upstairs?"

The look Shadow gives him communicated his opinion of that question quite clearly.

"Erm, right. Rouge, feel free to get a drink, we've got a few kinds of juice. Cups are to the right above the sink. Meph, get off the floor already."

"Thanks for the offer," Rouge said, slightly distracted by Mephiles' shock at Shadow's comment. (And the fact that he seemed perfectly comfortable on the floor, but to each their own.)

Silver waved Shadow forward, letting him go first and following at the same (slightly slower than usual) pace.

There was a beat of silence after they'd disappeared. Then,

"Alright, spill."

Mephiles blinked up at Rouge from where he'd settled comfortably against the island. "What?"

Rouge frowned down at him, though it was a little hard to keep her stern demeanor when looking at someone sitting criss-cross applesauce on the floor like a grade schooler. "What's going on with Shadow?"

He glanced away, pulling his knees up and hugging them close so he could rest his cheek on them. "It's really none of my business. But Sonic and Shadow aren't on the best of terms right now."

She narrowed her eyes. None of his business, huh? "So where is big blue?"

"Out somewhere. When he heard Shadow was on a mission, he decided to go out running for a while. He said not to worry if we didn't hear from him for a few days."

"Sounds like him. But where did he hear that from?"

"Me." He raised his head slightly to look at her. "Shadow said if Sonic came looking to tell him that he was on a mission with GUN." Explanation given, he dropped his head again.

That seemed like something Shadow would do, and Mephiles seemed to be telling the truth, so she decided not to push. Her intuition told her this wasn't the full truth, but she doubted she'd get anything more out of him. Besides, she couldn't bring herself to push when he looked so... exhausted.

...Well, why not.

"Hey now," she said, squatting down in front of him, "didn't Silver say you should get off the floor? It can't be a very comfortable seat."

"It is, actually."

"But wouldn't the couch be more comfortable?" she coaxed, noting the similarity with some of Shadow's episodes back when he'd been living with her. If it was a memory thing, though, there wasn't much to do but wait it out.

"Hm, I guess."

Rouge waited a moment, unsurprised when he failed to get up. She reached for the memories of when Shadow got like this and moved to take Mephiles by the arm. "Alright there, let's get you-"

Mephiles jerked away from her, fear flashing in his eyes for a moment. "Huh?"

She blinked, then frowned. "Is something wrong?"

He shook himself before settling again, looking a little more aware this time. "No, not really. Why would there be?"

"Honey, you jumped about a foot when I tried to touch you."

"Oh." Mephiles looked a bit confused, then shook his head. "Sorry, I just. Wasn't expecting that."

"Alright then." Slowly this time, so as not to startle him, she reached over and took hold of his arm. When he didn't respond visibly, she pulled him to his feet and over to the couch. He came with surprisingly little resistance, almost collapsing when she nudged him to sit. When she tossed a blanket at him, he wrapped it around himself without comment.

"I'm going to get a juice," she said, turning toward the kitchen. "You want anything?" Not that she expected he would, but it was only polite to ask.

"No, I'm fine."

She nodded and went to get the juice.

XXX

Silver stepped down the stairs as carefully as he could, fully aware that while Shadow may have passed out from exhaustion, his injury-induced sleep tended to be a lot lighter than his regular sleep (on the rare occasions he bothered to get any).

Luckily, the others downstairs were being fairly quiet. Too quiet, actually. Silver frowned a bit as he peered over the banister, trying to discern what they could be up to.

All he could see was Meph's ears over the back of the couch, so he carefully crept down the rest of the stairs to see better. To his surprise, Mephiles appeared to have fallen asleep, slumped over and curled up on the armrest of the couch. Rouge was leaning against the kitchen counter, sipping a glass of juice. She smiled and gave Silver a little wave when he looked at her, then motioned him closer.

"He fell asleep as soon as I got him off the floor," she whispered, by way of explanation. "I suppose Shadow is in a similar state?"

Silver nodded, glancing at Mephiles' slightly awkward position. "Shadow was falling asleep as soon as I started putting pain reliever on some of his nastier wounds. I think adrenalin and pain was all that was keeping him up. And Mephiles... hasn't been doing too well since Shadow and Sonic got into their fight. Don't let him know I said this, but he's more empathetic than you'd think from the way he acts."

"I can understand that," Rouge said, though she decided not to shareexactly _why_ she could understand. Mephiles had always been a master manipulator; him being good at reading others was no great surprise. The fact that he was bothered by others' pain might have surprised her had she heard it earlier, but after seeing how he was coping (or not) with the situation, she couldn't bring herself to view him as the cold-hearted monster that had tried to hurt them during the adventure. That didn't stop her from wondering what happened to that part of him.

Silver nodded, then leaned against the counter across the sink from her. Well, maybe collapsed would be a more accurate term, or at least slumped. The exhaustion he moved with couldn't be contained with the simplicity of the word 'leaned'.

"You don't look so good yourself," Rouge remarked.

He managed a weak smile. "Yeah. I still can't handle it when my friends fight like this."

Rouge's eyes softened with sympathy. She set her glass down and pulled Silver off the counter, gently pushing him toward the stairs. "Go get some rest, sweetheart. I'll keep an eye on sleepy here."

Silver resisted a bit, looking at her with no small amount of concern despite his exhaustion. He didn't seem as tired as Mephiles, but he wasn't in good shape besides. "Are you sure? I don't want to keep you here when you've got work to do."

"It's fine, today's my day off. Besides, you'll need your energy to take care of the ultimate baby when he wakes up."

That startled a laugh out of Silver, and he finally acquiesced and headed for the stairs. "Alright, I'll take a nap. Thanks Rouge."

"Not a problem." She waved him off, then paused as memory struck.

A look over whatever Silver had been making revealed something a little more complicated than what she usually cooked. She ran a bar, not a restaurant. But this didn't look that hard, and Silver had left the recipe (written in his own handwriting but it was much better than Sonic's), so she could handle this. No need to let it go bad.


	18. Stability of a Sort

**Those of you who keep track of NaNo events probably know what's coming. July camp is here so I'll be busy with that mess and won't be uploading for at least this month. Thanks for your patience and enjoy the story!**

* * *

Mephiles blinked sleepily over the back of the couch. "What are you doing?"

Rouge yelped, spinning and flaring her wings to cover the pot of bubbling, oddly-colored froth behind her. "Nothing much. Just a bit of cooking. Did you have a nice nap?"

"I guess." He rolled off the couch, letting the blanket slide off his shoulders and padding over to her side, still sleepy. "Move over, let me see."

She did as he asked, looking more than a little sheepish. "Sorry, I thought I could finish up while Silver got some rest."

"Well at least you got him to rest. Better than I've done this past few days." He glanced over the recipe, stealing brief glances at the pot.

Rouge debated asking what he was doing, then decided against it. "Maybe because he thought you were being hypocritical? You can't have been sleeping well either, you were out like a light for half an hour."

"No, but he wasn't sleeping well even when he slept. He's doing better right now."

"How can you tell?"

Mephiles suddenly looked a bit embarrassed. "I, er, can tell what people are doing using their shadows. It's very limited, and I swear I don't use it to spy, but it helps me check on the others without bothering them. By the way, if you use one of Silver's recipes, do any chopping before you start. He likes to make his vegetables as fresh as possible by chopping them right before going into the pot but you can't get most of the timing right if you aren't telekinetic." With that, he turned on the sink and dumped the mess down the drain, looking at Rouge until she caught on and covered her ears before running the garbage disposal. A moment later, he turned the thing off and ran some water in the pot.

"That seems a somewhat awkward way to write recipes," Rouge said as she watched him.

He shrugged, turning off the water. "Silver's been the only one cooking here for a while. I don't exactly do much either. So there's no reason to write recipes for anyone but himself."

"Understandable," Rouge said, though inwardly she was coming to a dawning realization about the conversation and not really listening that closely.

Before she could say anything, footsteps sounded overhead. Shadow came down the stairs a moment later with various bandages covering his nastier scrapes and bruises. He glanced at the pot in the sink, then at the spilled substance on the stove, before turning a flat look on Rouge.

She held up her hands in playful surrender. "Alright, you caught me cooking again. Though in my defense I was trying to make sure it didn't go bad while Silver napped."

"And that seems to have gone very well for you," he observed, eyes trailing to where Mephiles was busily scrubbing away at the sink.

Rouge huffed. "Well excuse me, I've never followed one of Silver's recipes before. How was I supposed to know to prepare things first?"

"I recommend reading through a recipe in advance in the future to know when that's necessary. I assume Mephiles explained that particular strategy?"

Rouge waited for Mephiles to respond for himself. This decision resulted in a slightly awkward silence as he failed to do so. She glanced over at him, puzzled, but decided he must just be too focused on his dish washing to notice. "That's right. Nice to know there's a gentleman in the house, hm?"

Shadow didn't bother to respond. He was busy giving Mephiles an inscrutable look.

"Shadow?"

"Hm? Oh. Rouge, you know I don't care for your games."

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. These hedgehogs, really. "Your loss. I'm sure Mephiles appreciates me, right?"

"Sure," Mephiles said, tone clipped. He rinsed the pot and put it on a towel to dry. "I'm going upstairs. If you need me I'll be in my room."

Rouge watched him go, then turned her confusion toward Shadow. "Did I say something wrong?"

"No. Don't worry about it."

Oh, _that_ was certainly not going to make her worry. But she would set that aside for the moment in favor of her initial concern. "Say, Shadow... do you know if Knuckles has had a real conversation with Mephiles?"

Shadow narrowed his eyes, clearly wondering where she was going with this. "I doubt it, considering every time Mephiles comes up he makes a comment about us trusting him too much. Why? What are you plotting?"

"Oh, nothing much," she said with a smile.

XXX

"And that," Rouge said, waving a plastic fork for emphasis, "is why you don't challenge Shadow to a dance off."

Silver chuckled at the story, and even Mephiles snorted a bit. They'd decided to go out for food once everyone woke up, despite Mephiles' lack of enthusiasm and Shadow's clear displeasure, and eventually ended up sharing stories over burgers and fruit. But even now Shadow looked extremely unenthused by the whole venture.

"We should have gotten our food and went back," he grumbled once again.

Rouge raised a brow at him. "Not that I'm disagreeing, but why? There's no rush."

"He doesn't want Sonic to return to an empty house," Mephiles said while still intensely focused on stirring his untouched shake with a straw.

Everyone else stared at him for a moment before he looked up at them. "What? Am I wrong?"

"...No," Shadow admitted, though he seemed to be forcing the word out through clenched teeth. "That's correct. How did you-?"

"That's the obvious reason. Are we going back now? I would like a chance to eat."

Rouge and Silver exchanged glances, then looked at Shadow for confirmation before agreeing. They all headed back shortly thereafter.

XXX

Rouge left their group after they finished cleaning up, since her house was in the opposite direction. So they said their goodbyes and went their separate ways.

It wasn't a long walk, but it seemed longer because of the heavy silence over them. Any attempt to start a conversation fizzled out quickly. When they did make it, Silver reached for the door with no small amount of relief.

He paused before actually opening it when he felt a hand on his arm. Mephiles looked at him solemnly, then turned and walked the few steps back to Shadow as they watched, confused. Then he shoved Shadow toward the door hard enough to make him stumble.

Silver's jaw dropped.

"What in the name of Chaos-" Shadow snapped, regaining his balance and spinning to glare at Mephiles. He froze in place, caught in the steady gaze aimed his way. All the anger (or at least most of it) drained out of him, and he turned to the door. Seeming to steel himself, he opened it and went in.

Silver moved to follow, but was once again stopped by a hand on his arm. This time, Mephiles followed up by pulling him away from the door. The confused hedgehog followed reluctantly.

"So, uh, where are we going?" he asked as Mephiles failed to let go, though he at least moved his grip to Silver's wrist for both of their comfort.

"Nowhere particular," he said. "I was going to visit the park. You can do what you want. I just felt we should give them some space to sort things out."

What was... oh. "Sonic's home?"

"Mhm. I assume he arrived while we were out. Hopefully they can come to some sort of agreement with their problems."

"Yeah. Are you... going to let go of my wrist anytime soon?"

Mephiles stopped dead, and Silver was forced to stop just as suddenly. The dark being turned to face him. "Should I?"

Silver pondered for a moment, then shrugged internally. "If you're going to the park, I'll probably just come along, so I guess not."

"Then let's go."

XXX

Silver watched Mephiles, trying to pretend he wasn't doing so. He doubted he was doing a very good job of it but Mephiles hadn't called him out yet. That had to count for something.

They were sitting on the (recently replaced) swing set, pushing idly at the ground without intent to really swing. It was around the time most families headed home for dinner besides being a weekday so they had the place to themselves.

Mephiles was taking advantage of the peaceful air, gazing off at some distant point beyond Silver's reach. He hadn't made a move to speak since they'd agreed to come here together and Silver was reluctant to break the silence. The last few days had been hard on all of them, but Mephiles...

Silver got the impression that Mephiles was taking on some of the blame for this, and he wasn't sure why. Maybe for the same reason he'd felt bad about past fights, back when it was just the three of them. That little voice saying that he was there and should have intervened before it reached this point. But something told him it was more than that. That same something made him sure Mephiles wouldn't tell him if he asked about it.

He breathed a huffy sigh and kicked off the ground, finally swinging with intent. Mephiles looked up as he whooshed past. The dark being watched him swing back and forth a few times, quickly building momentum, before copying his movements with a bit less grace.

Silver glanced down at him, smiling as Mephiles fell into a rhythm before turning back to the sky and closing his eyes. The wind whistling past reminded him a bit of flying, though not nearly as much fun. But it was a small joy he could have with far less effort.

He jumped at the peak of his next swing, sailing through the air with a laugh and landing on his feet with just a little help from his powers. A moment later, Mephiles landed beside him, though he managed to land on his feet without tricks before flopping down on his back in the grass.

Silver watched him for a moment, lips quirked into a small smile, then followed his gaze to admire the sky. Even with all the buildings covering the horizon, he could see a ring of orange turning the clouds pink and purple. It was a nice sunset. Would have been nicer if they'd been at a beach or something where they could properly see it. He wondered whether Mephiles was thinking about the sky as well, or maybe their friends at home.

"The tree's still there."

Silver blanked for a moment before turning to stare at him. "Sorry, what?"

Mephiles had turned to look at something over to one side, and pointed in that direction. "The tree. It got set on fire, it can't be more than charcoal now. But it's still there."

There was a beat of silence. Then Silver sighed, offering a hand and a wry grin. "I'll never know what's going on in your head, will I?"

"Perhaps not." Mephiles accepted the hand up and dusted himself off. "Probably for the best," he added, much softer.

Silver pretended not to hear.

XXX

They decided it was probably safe to head home when the streetlights started turning on. Still, they tried to be quiet when they entered, in case they needed to slip back out again. The house was quiet aside from the gentle ambiance of the TV. Silver and Mephiles exchanged a glance before sneaking over to check on the situation.

Sonic sat on one end of the couch, watching some mindless TV , while Shadow sat at the other end reading a book. They glanced up when the others approached despite their care.

Sonic grinned. "Hey you two. Nice to see you didn't burn down the house while we were gone."

Silver rolled his eyes, deciding to drop the caution. Straightforwardness worked better with Sonic anyway. "You have no right to make that joke after the last time I left for a day. One. Day."

He tilted his head, creating that picture of innocence that could have been real or fake. "Insurance covered it, I don't see what the big deal is."

"The big deal is, I'm not the fire hazard around here." He cut Sonic off before he could continue. "Anyway, how have you been?"

Sonic's smile shifted a bit as he heard the familiar words. It was an open question, one that had served them well after other fights. Sometimes during as well. "Not bad. Doing better."

"We came to an agreement," Shadow said. "We'll be fine."

"Glad to hear it," Silver said.

At the same time, some of the tension left Mephiles' stance. He moved from behind Silver to get something out of the fridge, pausing to meet the others' confused gazes once he'd completed his retrieval. "What? I never got to eat."

Silver mentally smacked himself. "Oh right, that's - wait, is that from the fast food place? How'd-?"

"Teleportation. It's tricker to manipulate things other than myself, but it seems to have worked fine this time. Now if you'll excuse me, I have important matters to attend to." He gave a somewhat sarcastic bow and vanished.

Silver rolled his eyes. Dramatic idiot. He shot the others a small smile on his way out. "I'm gonna head up too, might go to bed soon but feel free to get me if you need anything."

"Will do," Sonic called.

Shadow remained silent, but he nodded his acknowledgment as Silver turned the corner and vanished upstairs. A moment later, his eyes landed on Sonic, a brow raised in pointed question.

Sonic's smile faltered, and he looked away. "'Course I didn't say anything," he said, careful to stay quiet. "You know why."

"I do." He paused for a moment before continuing. "After today, I suspect Mephiles is blaming himself for our argument. He's too perceptive not to suspect something."

"I know. And I'll talk to him, but..." Sonic pulled his knees up to his chest, curling into a ball, staring very hard at a corner of the coffee table. "Not yet."

There was a heavy, resounding sigh before Shadow spoke again. "Get over here."

Sonic blinked, turning to see Shadow holding out an arm. He hesitated for a second, but not more than that, before scooting over to lean against Shadow's side. Shadow wrapped the extended arm around his shoulders without a word.

They sat there, unmoving, for a good while.

"I'm still not the best person to advise," Shadow said, the words a bit stilted, like he wasn't quite sure how to say them. "But I can say this. If you talk to him, I'm sure it will go fine. You're good with people, and with knowing the right thing to say."

Sonic blinked, then broke into a wide grin. "Aw, Shads, that might be the sweetest thing you've ever said to me."

"...Assuming you make use of that skill," Shadow added before shoving him off the couch.


	19. Resolve

**Hey all! Sorry for taking so long with getting back to posting. It's one of those times in the year where everything drops on me at once, and I don't know when things will become more manageable. I know I won't be able to post next weekend, but after that I can't say for sure. I will be trying to get chapters out when I can though. Thanks for your patience while I try to get my life in order.  
**

* * *

 _Brrrrng. Brrrrng. Click._

"Hello?"

"Hi Amy, it's Silver. Is Blaze there?"

"Sure, I'll get her. Gimme a second."

Silver adjusted the phone, listening to the muffled voices on the other end of the phone while he waited. There was a brief burst of static.

"Hello Silver."

He smiled at his friend's voice. "Hey Blaze. Been a while since we talked, hasn't it?"

"It's only been a few days."

"Oops. Has it? It feels like a lot longer." He chuckled, though it wasn't as happy as he'd meant it to be.

There was a brief pause. "Where are we meeting?"

"Huh?"

"Silver, you sound terrible. If there's something wrong, I want to talk to you in person. Not over the phone. So where are we meeting?"

"Uh. The forest? That area by the stream, with all the rocks?"

A crackle of static came across the phone. Silver could easily picture Blaze pinching the bridge of her nose and sighing. She seemed to do that a lot around him. "You're lucky I know what you're talking about. I'll meet you there in half an hour, alright?"

"Alright. Bye." He ended the call, pausing for a moment to smile to himself. Blaze was always so blunt. Occasionally it was frustrating, even for him, but just then it was nice. Refreshing, really. Besides, he needed a little time away from his roommates. Sonic and Shadow were still walking on eggshells, and Mephiles...

He wasn't going to think about Mephiles. Not while he still had to sort himself out.

Silver replaced the phone and hopped downstairs with due speed, only catching himself with his powers once on the way down. "I'm headed out!" he called, receiving some vague sounds of acknowledgment and something soft landing in his face. He spluttered a bit, pulling the scarf off his head and turning to glare at the empty hall.

"It's cold out," Mephiles called from the kitchen. "Wear it or don't, but don't complain if you come back chilled."

His scowl morphed into a grin as he wrapped the scarf around his neck. "Thanks Meph!" he called back, ignoring the "yeah, yeah" he got in response.

As he walked down the street, his smile faded a bit. He fingered the scarf thoughtfully. It was just a spare they kept in the closet, probably whatever Mephiles' teleportation trick had grabbed, but it was a thoughtful gesture that only someone who knew him well would think of. It wasn't all that cold at this time of year. But growing up surrounded by fire and lava affected your perceptions of temperature. He buried his face in the warm fabric, breathing a heavy sigh that cast humid heat back into his face.

Looking up, he noticed that he'd wandered past the point where he usually started flying. He must have been buried in his thoughts for longer than he'd realized. Shaking his head to clear it, he did a quick check of his surroundings before taking off.

Blaze was already waiting when Silver reached the small waterfall. Though calling it a waterfall was generous considering it was maybe a foot tall. Still, the water falling over the ledge provided a nice soundtrack that blended well with the forest's rustling leaves, and a nearby tree's roots had grown out of the ground enough to provide decent seating. Above, a leafy canopy just beginning to change color with the seasons kept the space cool and dark. Below, the remains of old leaves mixed with the dry soil to create a spongy mixture that crunched softly when stepped on. Overall it was one of Silver's favorite places to hang out.

Blaze offered him a small smile as he landed and approached. "It's good to see you again."

"Same. Been a while since we could meet in person. Are you sure you have time now?"

"I can make time for a friend who needs it," Blaze said firmly. She waved for him to sit down and settled across from him, hands folded neatly as she gave him a curious look. Or his wardrobe, at least. "Is it getting cold already?"

He pressed a hand to his scarf, then shrugged. "Don't know. Mephiles threw a scarf at me, and it seems cold enough, but you know I have no cold tolerance."

"True enough. Though I have to ask... Mephiles threw a scarf at you?"

Silver shrugged again. "It's his weird way of looking out for me I guess. You know him."

"Not as well as you. We haven't spent much time together since he... reappeared."

"I guess not," Silver said, his gaze growing distant.

Blaze waited a moment, then, when it became clear Silver was lost in thought, sighed and snapped her fingers. "Silver."

He jumped and stared at her, eyes wide. "Huh what?"

"You spaced out for a moment." She paused, frowning. "This isn't about his history, is it?"

"Oh, no, not at all," he reassured her quickly. He was surprised to realize that he hadn't even thought about Mephiles' initial role in a while, even with the regressions. But that was a thought for later. "It's just... a lot has happened lately, and Mephiles is just as stressed as me, but he's still looking out for me."

She considered him for a moment, then smiled. "I'm glad you're getting along. And that you have someone besides me to look after you."

Silver pouted. "Excuse me, I can look after myself."

"Of course you can."

There was a moment's pause before Silver burst into giggles. Blaze allowed herself a small smile as she waited for him to calm down.

"Thanks, Blaze," he said, once he'd recovered himself. "I needed a break." More than he'd realized, but what else was new.

She hummed quietly before responding. "Did Sonic and Shadow fight again?"

"Yeah. I guess you've seen enough fights to know the signs by now, huh."

"Mhm." Her expression turned worried again. "Are you alright?"

He shrugged. "As alright as I can be. I'm more worried about Mephiles. He's not used to it." He fiddled with the ends of the scarf, eyes dimming as he thought. "Blaze... am I a good friend?" He quickly began to backtrack when he saw her expression. "Sorry, that was a weird question, I'll just-"

"Why would you think you aren't?" she said, cutting him off.

Silver blinked at her, then looked down again. "Because... even though he's handling this worse than me, Mephiles is still trying to make sure I'm okay. And I'm not exactly doing much in return."

She regarded him for a moment, then sighed, smiling slightly. "Oh Silver."

He tensed a bit, recognizing the tone. "What did I do now?"

"Nothing," she said. "But if you were a bad friend, you wouldn't be so worried about it. Besides, if he's anything like you I'm sure he appreciates having someone to relate to."

Silver was silent for a moment more, then launched himself at her in a sudden hug. "Thanks Blaze," he said, letting go before she could do more than be mildly surprised. "I don't know what I'd do without you."

"Fortunately you won't have to."

They talked for a while longer, though not about anything else important. Little things. Recipes he'd tried, incidents she'd handled, jokes that one or the other felt worth sharing. By the time it was time to go home, Silver felt much better, and Blaze waved him off with a smile.

That smile faded a bit as Silver vanished into the distance. "I hope you're right about him," she said quietly, eyes burning with a familiar fire. "You don't deserve a repeat of last time."

Mephiles had relocated to the couch and was playing a game, only half paying attention, when Sonic made an appearance. The speedster zipped into the kitchen, grabbed some indeterminate food item, and stuffed it in his mouth before noticing Mephiles sitting there. "Mrmng mmph," he called, letting the fridge fall closed.

"Morning to you too," Mephiles said, not bothering to pause his game. "Sleeping in?"

Sonic swallowed the massive bite of food and offered a grin. "Sure. Gotta get enough sleep, right?"

"For once," Mephiles said, giving him a Look. Sonic chuckled sheepishly, scratching the back of his neck, but didn't say anything. "So should I expect you to stick around for the day, or keep earplugs on hand?"

"Ha ha," Sonic said, but he looked amused. That faded a little before he spoke again. "Actually, I wanted to talk to you."

Mephiles' hands tightened slightly on the controller. Otherwise he didn't respond visibly. "Oh?"

"Yeah." He folded his hands, shifting slightly from one foot to the other. "You actually playing that, or...?"

"Not really." Mephiles paused the game and set the controller aside, folding his hands neatly in his lap. "What did you need?"

Sonic seemed to hesitate, watching his hands instead of meeting his eyes. "Are you okay?"

Mephiles tightened his grip for a moment, but relaxed just as fast. "That seems more like a question you should be asking Silver."

A flash of guilt crossed his face, then vanished. "Yeah, well, Silver's not here, and I'm asking you right now."

"Fair enough." Mephiles was silent, focused on brushing his thumb across the base of his pointer finger. "In truth? I don't know. I doubt it though."

Sonic blinked. "Oh. That's..."

"More candid than you expected?" Mephiles suggested, eyes crinkling at the corners as Sonic floundered. "I see no reason not to answer with all honesty, since I know where your concerns are coming from. But," and his expression hardened a bit, "I expect you to offer the same in return."

"To... tell you if I'm okay?" Sonic tried, still plainly off balance.

Mephiles began to shake his head, then stopped. "Well, yes, I do want to know that. But more important, I want you to be honest with me. And I want to hear what it is that's been causing you so much distress lately."

There was a brief moment of silence as Sonic mentally regained his footing. "Well," he said, much less sure than he would have liked, "it's not really anyone's fault, but-"

"No," Mephiles said, cutting him off mid-sentence. "I meant for you to say what the problem is. Because I think we've both figured it out, and the fact that you of all people are dancing around the subject is the opposite of reassuring."

When Sonic failed to respond beyond gaping like a fish, Mephiles sighed and continued in a strangely gentle tone. "Should I say it?" Sonic could only nod, momentarily mute. "Okay. I think the problem is, even though we're in a much different situation now than before, you're bothered by the things I did back when we were enemies. And you know what? That's okay."

"No it's not!" Sonic snapped, sitting upright and almost glaring at him. "It's not okay that I can't feel totally comfortable when I'm alone with you, or that a part of me is sure you'll do something bad when you regress, none of that is okay! You're my friend, Meph, and I shouldn't let stuff that you wouldn't even do now affect me." He turned away, unwilling to see the pity or hurt that would fill Meph's eyes. He wasn't a charity case, and he didn't think he could take the second. That's what he'd been trying to avoid by keeping this to himself.

"Sonic..." The tone Mephiles used was, strangely, not pitying in the least, nor did it sound hurt. It sounded, of all things, rather unimpressed. Sonic got the impression Mephiles was trying very hard not to sound too condescending. "It's okay to be upset at me for making a successful attempt on your life."

There was a beat of silence.

"Well, when you put it like that, it sounds pretty stupid," Sonic admitted, turning slightly to meet Meph's gaze. Surprisingly enough, he looked almost amused, prompting a half grin from Sonic as well. Then he snorted, which turned into a giggle, which turned into a full-blown laughing fit that had him leaning against the back of the couch for support. Mephiles joined in, though with just a touch more restraint.

"Oh chaos my kidneys hurt," Sonic finally wheezed, breathless from laughter and still breaking into little giggle fits. At least Mephiles didn't look much better off. "Where did you even get that?"

At that, Mephiles sobered abruptly, causing Sonic to stare in total lack of comprehension at the sudden regression in the mood. "It's something I can understand," he said, "so I can see where you're coming from with it."

Sonic blinked. "Really? How come?"

Mephiles was silent for a moment, and Sonic waited patiently for his answer. Or maybe not so patiently. But hey, at least he wasn't prodding Meph to hurry up! Heated stares notwithstanding.

After a minute, Mephiles sighed. "You aren't going to give this up, are you?"

"Nope. You said it's kind of like my thing, and look where that went."

"That... is surprisingly logical."

Sonic narrowed his eyes, sensing a thinly veiled insult there. But, no, distractions.

When his gaze remained steady, Mephiles sighed again. "Alright. I'll explain, but not everything. Some of this is a bit personal. Besides... you already know parts of what I have to say."

"I'm home!" Silver called. A few vague responses came from the living room, so he dropped his scarf on the side table and headed over to check on his roommates.

Sonic and Mephiles were playing some sort of co-op platformer. Silver couldn't tell for sure which was which, but from looking at the players, he suspected the one carrying the team was Mephiles. Sonic looked a little out of it.

"You know," Silver said after watching for a moment, "being blue isn't required for a BSOD, but I wonder if it makes them any worse."

Sonic jumped a good foot, but Mephiles just paused the game and turned to look at him. "I'm sure that would be funny if I had the slightest idea what you're talking about."

"It's a trope. Blue screen of death. Usually occurs when a character, in this case Sonic, encounters something horrifying and their brain shuts down. Not that there's that much of a difference here."

"Oh shut up, you - you banana," Sonic grumped, dropping his controller and tossing his hands in the air.

Mephiles raised an incredulous brow as Silver snickered in the background. "Banana?"

"Let me have my stupid insult, I'm processing."

"Noted."

"But seriously," Silver said, holding back his giggles in interest of satisfying his curiosity. "What's got you so shocked?"

"Well..." Sonic glanced at Mephiles, seemingly hesitant to continue.

Mephiles seemed to catch his meaning. "We were talking about some personal stuff, and it got a bit emotional," he explained. "Especially the..." He tapped beside his eye. "You know."

Silver's expression fell into carefully schooled neutrality. "Ah. I guess that makes sense."

"Not really," Mephiles said with a shrug. "I mean, it sucks but it's not as big a deal as you seem to think."

Sonic looked at Silver, and got a small head shake in return, which he accepted easily enough. "Right then. Anyway, yeah, we talked about some stuff that was on my mind, and some stuff on his mind, and it was... a lot. But it's probably good we talked about it."

"Glad to hear it," Silver said, settling on the arm rest of the couch. "You going out for a run anytime soon?"

"Probably. But I wanted to talk to you first." He glanced at Mephiles, suddenly looking a bit anxious.

Mephiles didn't respond with the same anxiety, just said, "Silver, take my controller." and rose to his feet, quickly vanishing upstairs.

Silver watched this process with some confusion, especially when the controller in question was shoved into his hand, then turned to Sonic for some sort of explanation.

Sonic shrugged. "He probably guessed I wanted to talk to you alone. Not because I'm saying anything secret, but..."

"But?" Silver prompted when he didn't continue.

"I'm sorry for stressing you out so much recently," he said quickly, like he had to rush his thoughts out before they burst free on their own. "None of this was that big a deal, so it's not fair that I took it out on all of you. Me and Shadow talked, and I'll be dealing with it better now, but I shouldn't have been acting that way in the first place."

Silver waited for a moment after he'd finished, making sure he was done before responding. "I forgive you. Not that there's anything to forgive. Shadow's the only one that you actually did anything to, and I'm guessing you already talked it out. You don't need to apologize for having emotions."

"But whenever me and Shadow fight-"

"I don't like it," Silver finished. It wasn't exactly a secret. "But that's something I need to deal with myself. You two don't argue like that over just anything, and I'm used to your usual banter. Like I said the last time we had this talk, and every time before that, it's just how you interact. And expecting you not to have serious arguments is unrealistic - nobody gets along perfectly all the time, no matter how close they are. Sometimes things happen. Sometimes people get upset."

"I guess," he mumbled, thinking back to heated words exchanged with Tails for no reason other than because they were both upset at the wrong moment. Then his eyes narrowed. "Wait. How'd you know what happened between me and Shadow? You weren't there."

Silver just smiled. "Because, blue. I know you two. I might not know exactly what went down, but I saw you when you came home looking for Shadow. It was your 'I really screwed up this time' look. You don't get that from regular banter."

"Huh. Am I really that obvious?"

Silver shrugged. "No idea. I know you pretty well, and I'm good at reading people, so I'm not exactly the best point of reference."

"True."

Sonic let his head fall back, sinking into the couch cushions with the heaviness of a tired body after a really long day. Or multiple long days. Silver followed his lead and slid to sit in Mephiles' previously vacated seat, though with a little less heaviness. He wasn't quite so tired as Sonic seemed to be, but that was okay. He could still appreciate a bit of sleepy quiet.

Of course, with Sonic there, the silence didn't last long. "So wanna continue the game?"

Silver raised a brow at him, then glanced at where the two characters' scores could be seen behind the pause menu. "If you really want to when you're that behind already."

"Eh, you'll need the handicap," Sonic said with a cheeky smile.

"Oh, it is _on!_ "

The dark being leaned back in his chair, hands folded over his stomach and eyes fixed on the ceiling. What he was looking at, who could say. He watched that point with a calm, disinterested air, never looking away, but neither taking on the cloudy eyed expression of someone lost in thought.

His ear twitched as someone's voice sounded from downstairs, reflexively straining to hear the words before lowering by conscious decision. He continued to sit without any apparent care for what he might be missing.

After a few minutes, he sat up properly, eyes skimming over his desk before landing on the trail of sticky notes. He paused, hesitating briefly before scribbling out a new one and turning away as the ink dried. He rose from the chair, smooth movements not reflecting his long immobility in the slightest, and crossed the room to collapse across his bed. He laid there for a moment with a stillness similar to moments previous. This time his eyes fixed on the doorknob.

Long moments dripped by like gobs of viscous fluid, sometimes seeming too thin for time to truly be passing, sometimes seconds slipping past in great lumps without notice.

Finally, he reached up and grabbed his pillow, punching it into shape before laying it under his head and closing his eyes. He didn't get up to turn out the light.


	20. Running Out of Sun

**So about the chapter title... I might have been listening to hi i'm case the whole time I was editing. Specifically Trial Periods (Side Effects) on repeat. Feel free to go look them up, their music gives me life. (That particular song reminds me of a particular character in Wake, but it might not be obvious who.)  
That aside, it is October, meaning NaNoWriMo is right around the corner. So I'll hopefully see you sometime after November!**

 **(quick edit: forgot to mention, I'm incorporating one of my less grounded in canon headcanons carrying on from here. Generally something I try to avoid, unless it's AU related, but it's one of those I use to explain certain parts of 06. Just a heads up. Alright, on with the story!)**

* * *

"So you're going to go exploring again?" Silver asked, though it wasn't really a question. They both knew it too.

Sonic nodded anyway. "Yeah. I hate to leave at a time like this, but, well..."

Silver remained quiet, waiting for Sonic to find the right words.

"I'm worried about Shadow," he finally finished.

Silver hummed softly before speaking. "I'm worried about both of you."

Sonic laughed, but it wasn't directed at Silver. "You and me both. Anyway, we shouldn't be gone more than-" He blinked, surprised at being cut off by a hand over his mouth.

"No," Silver said, firm as he could make it. "Don't set a time. Take however long you need." He leaned back, removing his hand and managing a wry little smile despite the worry he couldn't quite conceal. "Just, try not to vanish for a month this time, kay?"

"We won't. If nothing else, we need to be back to help Tails in a couple weeks."

"True."

There was a pause as both of them fell silent, running out of things to say. After a moment, Sonic ventured, "You know, you could come along."

Silver was already shaking his head almost before he started speaking. "I can't. Someone needs to be here for Mephiles, and all of us going isn't an option."

Sonic would have liked to disagree, but he knew Silver was right. So he just sighed and nodded. "Alright. Shadow's at Club Rouge right now, so I'm gonna stop by the lab before heading over there."

"Alright, see you in a week or so."

He nodded and shot him a last grin before heading for the door. No packing necessary when the whole point of the adventure was to shed ties for a bit.

"So you'll be gone for several days?"

He turned to see Mephiles sitting on the stairs, ignoring what sounded like GAME OVER music from his handheld. "Uh. How long have you been there?"

"A few minutes. I didn't hear more than the first bit, if that's what you're concerned about."

It was more the fact that he hadn't even noticed Mephiles arrive, but that was reassuring. If nothing else because he really did want to trust Mephiles. No matter what his instincts were saying. "Not really, just wondered. But yeah. Me and Shads will be traveling for a few days."

Mephiles nodded. "Alright. And..." He hesitated briefly before finishing. "Be safe. Both of you."

Sonic's grin returned in all its radiant glory. "Will do."

* * *

It felt quieter with Sonic and Shadow gone. Even with the little time he'd been there, Mephiles had gotten used to having someone around at least half the time. And while Silver was still there, he didn't take up space the way Sonic did. Even Shadow had an undeniable presence to him. Maybe that was just him, but the difference was palpable nonetheless.

When he poked his head around the corner, Silver was still sitting at the table, staring at nothing in particular with a thoughtful furrow in his brow. Mephiles crept upstairs quietly to avoid disturbing him.

In his room, door shut, the emptiness didn't feel as heavy. He could feel the absence of their shadows, but his room was often quiet. It wasn't so unusual. The slightly greater comfort and illusory distance from the situation gave him a little space to think.

It really was strange to feel so... empty, for lack of a better word, when nothing was that different from usual. The last few days had been stressful enough that he hadn't really noticed, but this more official absence felt entirely different from the regular missions or explorations that usually left the house empty. It was more concrete, knowing it would likely be days before they returned. It... lurked.

He tried to push the unpleasant thoughts away, focusing on his rock collection. He picked up a small piece of quartz, examining the way the light fell through its facets. It was soothing in its normality. It always worked the same way, following clear rules. If only everything was that simple.

* * *

Silver was watching TV when Mephiles came down for breakfast. He looked up and smiled as he entered the room. "Morning Meph. Getting food?" Mephiles nodded. "Alright, give me a second." He turned off the TV and rose, vanishing down the hall and up the stairs.

Mephiles prepared and ate breakfast in perfect silence. Once his dishes were cleared, he turned the TV back on, turning it to a music channel and settling in.

Silver came down a while later, poking his head around the corner and taking stock. Mephiles had the TV playing music he wasn't really listening to, staring blankly at nothing. "Everything okay?"

"How can you act like everything's normal?" he asked, turning to Silver with nothing but confusion. "It's so... with them gone..."

He shrugged. "I'm more used to it, I guess. Sonic and Shadow have always spent a lot more time away than here."

Mephiles blinked. "So it's only while I've been here that they've been home so constantly?"

"Pretty much." He paused, something in Mephiles' eyes making him uneasy. "Is... there anything else?"

"Not really. It just seems like a remarkable coincidence."

That... was an exceedingly casual tone. "I guess," he said, trying to guess what Mephiles was getting at.

"Almost like it wasn't a coincidence at all," he said, still with that same nonchalance. "Don't you think?"

Silver shifted uneasily. "I guess? I don't know why they would..." He hesitated, trying to find a phrasing that wouldn't sound bad.

That hesitation was all Mephiles needed. "Are you sure? Because I can think of at least one reason. And I think you can too. A few days is one thing. This long? We both know what they were doing. They were _keeping an eye out_."

Silver stood, frozen in place, through the unexpected flow of words. When Mephiles stopped to take a deep breath, he took a smaller one of his own before speaking. "Meph-"

He didn't get any further before Mephiles vanished.

Silver stared at the place he'd stood for a long moment, shock fading into frustration and something less concrete. His eyes suddenly squoze shut, hands clenching into fists that scrubbed furiously at his face for several seconds before he slumped into the nearest chair with a groan.

* * *

In a small but dense forest sat a rocky hill. A dark figure sat curled in a shaded corner between two rocks, eyes staring blankly ahead. Slowly his eyes closed, then opened again. He gave no sign that he was at all aware of his surroundings.

There was no telling how long he sat there before the fog in his eyes cleared the smallest bit. By then, the sun had crossed a wide expanse of the sky, shadows shifting to face in new directions. He blinked once to clear his vision, eyes skipping sideways across the landscape like they couldn't quite focus on anything. Another blink, and he buried his face in his knees.

A few minutes passed before he moved again. When he did, it was with slow, stiff motions, like he'd forgotten how to move right. By the time he made it to his feet he was moving more naturally, though it still looked just a bit off if you watched closely.

"Alright," he murmured, pausing at the disjointed sound of his own voice. "Alright," he repeated, slower this time, rolling the syllables around in his mouth like grapes. The words settled and gained strength as he continued. "It seems spending that much time in the shadows is a poor decision... which does make some sense, I suppose." Another pause. "I suppose," he added, again drawing out the sounds and emphasizing the shapes of the letters, "I should get home now."

He stiffened all at once, realization flashing across his face as memory of _why_ he'd been in the shadows returned. "Shoot."

The figure vanished, leaving the hill empty once more.

* * *

Mephiles appeared on the front porch, feeling a bit more solidly attached than he had before the jump. Not that it helped with the churning pit in his stomach. There was a good reason he'd landed on the porch instead of just inside like he usually did, and it wasn't because Silver kept complaining about being surprised when he appeared out of nowhere. Or, not just because of that.

He paused at the door, trying to figure out what to say. But he wasn't entirely sure how Silver reacted to his outburst earlier. He hadn't been there to see the other's response. The whole thing had gone by too fast. He'd reacted too fast. For a moment, he cursed his impulsive words, then pushed those feelings to the side. Planning wasn't useful, thinking only hurt. All he could do was go inside and try his best.

After a moment's consideration, he entered through the door. "I'm home," he called, heading toward the back. Silver seemed to be moving around in the kitchen. Neither Sonic nor Shadow was in the house, though there was no way of knowing if they'd been by earlier and left.

His observations were confirmed when he passed the corner and found Silver messing with his usual assortment of cooking utensils. He didn't even look up. "Oh hey Meph," he said, his voice distant. "This might take a while, feel free to grab something if you get hungry."

Mephiles blinked. "O...kay?"

Silver did look up this time, but his expression was hard to read. He didn't seem upset, exactly, just... just something else. "What? It's around the time I usually make dinner."

"I know." Well, he did now. He hadn't actually bothered to check the time since regaining his faculties. It wasn't so much Silver cooking that surprised him as the lack of confrontation. Without that direct sort of interaction, he wasn't sure how to respond, or if anything he said might set off a land mine. So he stayed silent. Silver seemed disinclined to speak, though, so Mephiles had plenty of time to find words. "I... wanted to apologize for earlier."

Silver didn't stop working, but one ear twitched back toward him. The small, almost unconscious gesture helped bolster his courage. "I shouldn't have yelled at you like that, or ran off right after, even though I was upset. I'm sorry."

There was a brief silence while Silver finished preparing ingredients and dumped them into a pot. Mephiles didn't try to break it.

Finally, Silver gave the pot a last stir and set the heat low before turning to face him. He looked... confused. "I didn't think you would say anything."

Mephiles blinked. "You what?"

"I mean," he said, slow and halting, "I kind of figured it was the same as any other argument you've run off from. Where we just pretend nothing happened, you know? Cause who needs to talk these things out when you can ignore the whole thing?"

"Silver... what are you..."

Silver smiled at him, a brittle, unhappy thing that had Mephiles taking a step back. "Oh that's right, you can't remember that stuff. I actually envy that right now. No chance of blackouts to those times, right?"

Wait. "You had a blackout?"

The smile broke and faded. Suddenly Silver couldn't meet his eyes. "Yeah, it... Could you maybe pretend I didn't say anything? I, I wasn't planning on..."

"Planning on what?" Mephiles took a careful step closer, keeping the corner of the kitchen island between them. "What did you see?"

Silver shook his head, eyes still averted. "I wasn't planning on telling you."

"Then it's a memory with me."

"Yeah."

Mephiles held back a sigh. That answered most of his questions. "Silver, I'll be fine. Tell me."

"Maybe I don't want you to hear it."

Mephiles blinked. "What?"

Flat amber eyes finally rose to meet his with a watery but firm gaze. "Maybe I don't want you to hear it. Maybe it was a complicated situation, and maybe I think it will just make you more upset about things you can't undo." His voice rose with every word, voice too clogged with emotion to be considered yelling but no less forceful for it. "Maybe there are things that I wish had never happened, but at least I don't run away from my problems!"

They stood near motionless for a moment, Mephiles frozen much as Silver had been in their initial confrontation, Silver breathing hard as the tears finally fell from his suddenly very wide eyes. He turned to scrub at them before Mephiles could regain his senses. "Please just go," he managed, all the force of the last moments vanishing into a threadbare whisper. "I'm sorry. I just... I can't deal with any of this right now."

Silence settled thick and heavy over the room, choking off words and motion alike. Mephiles finally managed a nod, even though Silver couldn't see it. "I'll be at the lab if you need me."

With a last beat of hesitation, he teleported away, leaving Silver to stand alone.

* * *

Tails looked up with a grin when Mephiles appeared at the lab doorway. His smile faltered at what he saw. "Uh, hi Mephiles. Everything okay?"

"Fine," he said simply, dropping into his usual chair sideways and spinning it to better watch Tails work.

When no further answers came, Tails mumbled an uncertain "Alright then..." and resumed working.

They were quiet for a good long while, Tails casting the occasional concerned glance over his shoulder, Mephiles bouncing a leg idly and apparently intent on what Tails was doing.

Finally Tails couldn't take it. "What happened to you?" he blurted, before clapping a hand to his mouth in horror.

Mephiles' leg stopped moving. He sat perfectly still for one, two, three seconds. "I yelled at Silver and ran off, he yelled at me when I got back. I'm giving him space."

"Oh," Tails said, dropping his hand when he realized it was still there. "And you're...?"

"I've been worse." He tilted his head in a birdlike manner. "You have some black stuff on your face."

Tails looked at his hands, covered in machine grease, with a familiar resignation. "It happens. But you didn't really answer."

Mephiles shrugged. "I don't have an answer."

"Oh... okay." Tails chewed the inside of his lip, unsure what else to say. Mephiles was far more approachable than Shadow, but he didn't know him as well as Sonic. His 'something is wrong' alarms were blaring, but there wasn't much he could do. So he returned to working in silence.

After a lot more time passed, he dared another glance back, only to realize Mephiles' eyes had closed. "Mephiles?"

No response.

He set his tools down as quietly as possible and grabbed a rag, wiping off the worst of the grease before tiptoeing closer. "Mephiles? Are you awake?"

Mephiles grunted softly, one eye cracking open. "Some. Too much travel time."

Tails blinked. He tried to comprehend why someone with teleportation powers would be tired from travel time, concluding that he was probably getting incomplete or inaccurate information and resolving to ask at a more opportune time. Namely when his informant wasn't on the verge of falling asleep.

Speaking of. "Why are you here then? Wouldn't it be better to stay home, or find a camping spot somewhere?" (Or at least more expected. Tails was kind of glad that Mephiles wasn't off on his own in this state.)

"No. Silver."

Another unclear answer, but the presence of intent was clear enough. "Okay. Go sleep upstairs, I'll handle it."

It took a bit of encouragement (and some pushing) to get Mephiles into a guest bed, and by the time he made it downstairs Tails was wondering if he should get some sleep too.

He glanced at the project sitting on his worktable. Well... maybe a few more minutes.

The phone rang before he more than picked up his tools. He resisted a sigh and picked up. "Hello?"

"Hey," said a soft, scratchy voice. "It's Silver. Is Mephiles there?"

"Yeah, but he fell asleep already. What's going on with you two?"

A crackly sigh, the emotion it contained unreadable over the phone. "I had... we both did some stupid stuff today. I'm more worried about him than myself though. He... I'm worried about him."

Tails kind of agreed with that sentiment, but thought it tactless to say so. "Do you want to stay over too? There's plenty of space."

"It doesn't matter if he's already asleep. I'll stop by tomorrow if he's still there. And... let him know I called, okay? Tell him hi for me."

"Can do. Night Silver."

"Night."

Tails stood holding the phone for a long minute after Silver hung up. He wished Sonic was here. Not that he'd be able to handle things any better, but at least it would be a comforting constant.


End file.
